Real World News

The campaign to strip Tony Blair of his knighthood was boosted last night by devastating allegations from his own defence secretary. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10369343/Tony-Blairs-Defence-Secretary-Geoff-Hoon-says-told-BURN-secret-Iraq-memo.html

https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/14/online_safety_bill_report/ We recommend that end-to-end encryption should be identified as a specific risk factor in risk profiles and risk assessments. Providers should be required to identify and address risks arising from the encrypted nature of their services under the Safety by Design requirements. I look at it from a different angle. If the provider doesn't use end to end encryption then there is a risk that the authorities would be able to read my all of my private communications if they wanted to. They probably wouldn't, because I'm a law abiding person and I don't associate with criminals so unlikely to ever…

https://www.computing.co.uk/news/4041292/clearview-ai-gbp17m-fine-violating-britain-privacy-laws Controversial facial recognition firm Clearview AI faces a potential fine of about £17 million from the UK regulator for failing to comply with the nation's data protection laws.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59474365 Mr Moore - known as "C" - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme these traps threatened to erode sovereignty and have prompted defensive measures.

https://news.sky.com/story/mass-legal-action-against-google-blocked-by-supreme-court-12465082 The Supreme Court rules that the class action claim could not succeed as it could not prove that all of the individuals "suffered any material damage or distress" as a result of the breach.

A man was shocked to discover the house he had owned for 30 years had been sold without his knowledge while he was working away. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/man-shocked-as-house-he-owned-for-30-years-sold-without-his-knowledge/ar-AAQbRwk?ocid=msedgntp

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/26/amazon-web-services-aws-contract-data-mi5-mi6-gchq The UK’s spy agencies have given a contract to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host classified material in a deal aimed at boosting the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence for espionage. Should we be storing our classified intelligence on the systems of a foreign, private corporation?

A police officer's son who killed two men while drug-driving is being sued for more than £200,000 by one of their families. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9984941/Met-Police-sergeants-drug-driving-son-20-sued-family.html

New medal for all serving uniformed personnel (five years service as of Feb 2022). Should come out next year. Amazing HMQ has done 70 years!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/22/afghanistan-second-ministry-of-defence-email-data-breach-emerges Email sent by officials potentially compromises safety of Afghans who may be eligible to relocate to the UK

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58535258 Plans to introduce vaccine passports for access into nightclubs and large events in England will not go ahead, the health secretary has said. Glad to hear, means I can still go clubbing after all Although it does say the plan will be kept "in reserve", and with the amount of you Turns this government has made, who knows.

https://news.yahoo.com/apple-delays-plans-roll-csam-131457911.html Apple has delayed plans to roll out its child sexual abuse (CSAM) detection technology that it chaotically announced last month, citing feedback from customers and policy groups. From what I read about this, they were going to make new iOS versions automatically scan pictures on your phone, generate a hash signature of them, and compare that to a database of hashes of known child abuse images. One match wouldn't trigger anything but once a threshold was reached (I think 15 matches?) it would alert Apple and they would contact the relevant authorities. The technology will now not be impleme…

https://inews.co.uk/news/online-safety-bill-would-give-legal-basis-for-censorship-of-lgbt-people-stephen-fry-and-campaigners-warn-1178176 Legal free speech could be banned from social media under the proposed law "Stephen Fry has led warnings that a proposed law to tackle “harmful content” online could curb the free speech of LGBT people and other marginalised groups."