The Cat Herder
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From hackable wearable rosaries to facial recognition for porn, this week has it all.
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Yet another bumper week of wonders. The headlines in most cases speak for themselves.
- ‘Google exec says Nest owners should probably warn their guests that their conversations are being recorded ’. Or Google Nest owners could a) switch the damn thing off when they have visitors or b) chuck the device in the bin.
- ‘Vatican’s wearable rosary gets fix for app flaw allowing easy hacks’.
- ‘Samsung: Anyone’s thumbprint can unlock Galaxy S10’.
- ‘Pixel 4 Face Unlock works if eyes are shut’.
- ‘GDPR stops us giving vaccination details, say principals’.
- ‘Junior minister says gov.UK considering facial recognition to verify age of p0rn-watchers’
- ‘EU parliament quietly hoards visitors’ wi-fi data’.
Records reviewed by The Washington Post show that at least 44 public and private universities in the United States work with outside consulting companies to collect and analyze data on prospective students, either by tracking their Web activity or formulating predictive scores to measure each student’s likelihood of enrolling. The vast majority of universities reviewed by The Post do not tell students the schools are collecting their information.
The Data Protection Commission wrote to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs asking for more information about the use of the Public Services Card as a mandatory part of the registration process for the new National Childcare Scheme. As of Wednesday the Department hadn’t replied. The scheme was due to go live at the end of this month but has been delayed due to that most mysterious of things, a snag in the system.
The Public Services Card got a dishonourable mention in what The Guardian described as “a devastating account of how new digital technologies are revolutionizing the interaction between governments and the most vulnerable in society”.
This is the report on the growth of the digital welfare state worldwide, presented to the general assembly of the UN on Friday by Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty.
More
- ‘UN Special Rapporteur warns that beneficiaries are forced to give up their right to privacy and data protection to receive their right to social security’, Privacy International
- Direct link to report [.docx format]
Finally, a quick observation: some of the people who decided to allocate the Data Protection Commission barely more than a quarter of the money the Commission requested in the budget put in their own submission for a bit of an increase. They reckon they deserve another 30%. Which, coincidentally, is roughly the same amount of a percentage increase the DPC asked for. It’s funny how these things line up sometimes.
A plan to force porn sites to verify users’ ages will be shelved, says Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan.
The Spanish DPA fined a company €30,000 (reduced to €18,000) for not providing a mechanism for users to reject cookies and not allowing users to exercise their right to withdraw consent.
- “The decision risks being perceived as an international statement that Ireland is not overly concerned with adequately performing its critical oversight function, and that it is deliberately underfunding a regulator in order to better suit its large base of multinational tech companies – each of which is a point of huge concern to multinationals I’ve spoken to.” Karlin Lillington in The Irish Times on the Irish state’s continuing missteps.
- Related to this, the Data Protection Commission’s Budget 2020 submission.
- “And yet, in the midst of the greatest computer security crisis in history, the US government, along with the governments of the UK and Australia, is attempting to undermine the only method that currently exists for reliably protecting the world’s information: encryption.” Edward Snowden in The Guardian.
- We’re watching this video op-ed on facial recognition by Clare Garvie in the New York Times
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Endnotes & Credits
- The elegant Latin bon mot “Futuendi Gratia” is courtesy of Effin’ Birds.
- As always, a huge thank you to Regina Doherty for giving the world the phrase “mandatory but not compulsory”.
- The image used in the header is by Krystian Tambur on Unsplash.
- Any quotes from the Oireachtas we use are sourced from KildareStreet.com. They’re good people providing a great service. If you can afford to then donate to keep the site running.
- Digital Rights Ireland have a storied history of successfully fighting for individuals’ data privacy rights. You should support them if you can.
Find us on the web at myprivacykit.com and on Twitter at @PrivacyKit. Of course we’re not on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Barring a disaster we’ll be in your inbox again next weekend.
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