"We are aware of data protection" | The Cat Herder, Volume 1, Issue 14

Welcome to Issue 14. Are you aware of data protection? 😼   November 4 · Issue #14 · View online Welcome to Issue 14. Are you aware of data protection? 😼 “Once these systems are put into use, they will not go away. The public will only hear the success stories and not the stories about those who have been wrongly stopped.” Some European countries are trialing an artificial intelligence border guard. This revved-up ELIZA will quiz travellers to within an inch of their lives and analyse their micro-expressions to make an assessment as to whether they’re good ‘uns or bad 'uns. In other recent AI news … Darin @crushspread AI is going to take over the world... and this is what Excel auto-populated today. https://t.co/Y0T4BajNT5 1:00 PM - 23 Oct 2018 An article in The Nationalist reports that traffic wardens in Carrick-On-Suir are now wearing body cameras. In a statement which he may come to regret, Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District Administrator Martin Nolan told councillors that “We are aware of data protection.” Some readers may remember the gentleman from Tusla who proudly announced their intention to store personal data “in perpetuity”. This, we feel, falls into the same category. The ‘These People Are Not Qualified To Talk Out Loud About Data Privacy, Let Alone Operate Systems Which Process Personal Data’ category. Mr. Nolan may be making the common error of being aware of the integrity and confidentiality aspects of data protection law while remaining blissfully unaware of the swathes of data protection law which are concerned with, roughly, ‘why are you doing it in the first place?’  If the purpose is “to deter abuse and harassment” then we here at the Cat Herder don’t see how that as a legitimate interest would outweigh the intrusion into individuals’ privacy caused by traffic wardens wandering around filming on what appears to be an ad-hoc basis.  Hat tip to @Aisling_Gheal on Twitter for unearthing this one.  Aisling Gheal @Aisling_Gheal @Tupp_Ed "That won't happen. We are aware of data protection." https://t.co/ORHWnqQLsg 9:39 AM - 1 Nov 2018 Yes, they did. It’s contentious and highly-contested mid term election time in the United States. Polling day is Tuesday November 6th. Irish readers may recall the kerfuffle over online advertising prior to the referendum on the 8th Amendment back in May, when Facebook thirstily attempted to grasp a bit of positive coverage by rolling out an early version of their ad transparency tool. “Facebook promises to cut fake abortion referendum ads by fast-tracking transparency tool”, Irish Independent, April 17th This didn’t work particularly well. “Facebook’s new tools to stop election interference through political advertising failed in Ireland”, Business Insider, May 24th. Well, they’d tried, hadn’t they, Zuckhole told anyone who’d listen, and they were going to try even harder and move even faster to unbreak the things they now conceded they might have broken. More than six months on things remain stubbornly broken, to the extent that journalists are now amusing themselves by seeing if there’s any kind of ad Facebook won’t approve. ‘How Big Oil Dodges Facebook’s New Ad Transparency Rules’, ProPublica ‘Facebook Allowed Advertisers to Target Users Interested in “White Genocide” - Even in Wake of Pittsburgh Massacre’, The Intercept ‘We posed as 100 senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them’, VICE News ‘Facebook’s political ad tool let us buy ads “paid for” by Mike Pence and ISIS’, VICE News Yes it will Christian Brodie, the [Student Loans Company’s] chair, told a committee of MPs that the company gathered evidence from social media to determine eligibility for student loans because it regarded personal Facebook accounts as a public source of information. “If people have public sources of information about themselves then they must expect that will be looked at,” Brodie told parliament’s education select committee. Student loans firm accused of ‘KGB tactics’ for assessing eligibility | The Guardian www.theguardian.com – Share MPs challenge company chair over trawling applicants’ social media to inform loan decisions It might well be happening here. We covered the tender for a social media monitoring tool the Sideshow Bob Rake Department put out in Issue 4. Just because affordable technology means you can do something highly intrusive it certainly doesn’t mean you should. Or that it’s lawful. Privacy Matters @PrivacyMatters The @CNIL serves notice on an 800 pupil school over Excessive video surveillance “cameras constantly filmed student work spaces, offices dedicated to administrative staff and living areas such as the cafeteria.” https://t.co/rSL6lPh9gx 7:04 AM - 31 Oct 2018 Is there a new DPC website yet? No When is it due? Soon When did the GDPR become enforceable? May 25th 2018 What date is it today? November 4th 2018  Makena Kelly in The Verge has an overview of what US legislators may be considering in their attempts to “fix” Facebook and Google’s behaviour as it relates to personal data. Just by the by, here’s a story from July: ‘Facebook, Amazon, and Google just spent record amounts of cash on lobbying Washington, DC’. The enhanced edition of what geeks know as Convention 108 was signed by 20 states last month. Ireland and the UK are among the signatories. Jennifer Baker has a look at what that could mean for Brexit Britain securing an adequacy decision when they exit the EU. This is an academic paper with a long title. It is, however, not all that long itself and well worth a read. ‘Responsibility for Data Protection in a Networked World – On the Question of the Controller, ‘Effective and Complete Protection’ and Its Application to Data Access Rights in Europe’ by Rene Mahieu, Joris van Hoboken and Hadi Asghari explores who is actually responsible for protection of personal data in a world in which almost everything is or can potentially be connected to everything else. —- 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 this newsletter will be in your inbox again next weekend. See you then. If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter do please forward it on to them. Did you enjoy this issue? In order to unsubscribe, click here. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here. Powered by Revue Privacy Kit, Made with 💚 in Dublin, Ireland

Welcome to Issue 14. Are you aware of data protection?

😼

Some European countries are trialing an artificial intelligence border guard. This revved-up ELIZA will quiz travellers to within an inch of their lives and analyse their micro-expressions to make an assessment as to whether they’re good ‘uns or bad 'uns.

In other recent AI news …

An article in The Nationalist reports that traffic wardens in Carrick-On-Suir are now wearing body cameras. In a statement which he may come to regret, Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District Administrator Martin Nolan told councillors that “We are aware of data protection.” Some readers may remember the gentleman from Tusla who proudly announced their intention to store personal data “in perpetuity”. This, we feel, falls into the same category. The ‘These People Are Not Qualified To Talk Out Loud About Data Privacy, Let Alone Operate Systems Which Process Personal Data’ category.

Mr. Nolan may be making the common error of being aware of the integrity and confidentiality aspects of data protection law while remaining blissfully unaware of the swathes of data protection law which are concerned with, roughly, ‘why are you doing it in the first place?’ 

If the purpose is “to deter abuse and harassment” then we here at the Cat Herder don’t see how that as a legitimate interest would outweigh the intrusion into individuals’ privacy caused by traffic wardens wandering around filming on what appears to be an ad-hoc basis. 

Hat tip to @Aisling_Gheal on Twitter for unearthing this one. 

It’s contentious and highly-contested mid term election time in the United States. Polling day is Tuesday November 6th. Irish readers may recall the kerfuffle over online advertising prior to the referendum on the 8th Amendment back in May, when Facebook thirstily attempted to grasp a bit of positive coverage by rolling out an early version of their ad transparency tool.

• “Facebook promises to cut fake abortion referendum ads by fast-tracking transparency tool”, Irish Independent, April 17th

This didn’t work particularly well.

• “Facebook’s new tools to stop election interference through political advertising failed in Ireland”, Business Insider, May 24th.

Well, they’d tried, hadn’t they, Zuckhole told anyone who’d listen, and they were going to try even harder and move even faster to unbreak the things they now conceded they might have broken.

More than six months on things remain stubbornly broken, to the extent that journalists are now amusing themselves by seeing if there’s any kind of ad Facebook won’t approve.

• ‘How Big Oil Dodges Facebook’s New Ad Transparency Rules’, ProPublica
• ‘Facebook Allowed Advertisers to Target Users Interested in “White Genocide” - Even in Wake of Pittsburgh Massacre’, The Intercept
• ‘We posed as 100 senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them’, VICE News
• ‘Facebook’s political ad tool let us buy ads “paid for” by Mike Pence and ISIS’, VICE News

MPs challenge company chair over trawling applicants’ social media to inform loan decisions

It might well be happening here. We covered the tender for a social media monitoring tool the Sideshow Bob Rake Department put out in Issue 4.

Just because affordable technology means you can do something highly intrusive it certainly doesn’t mean you should. Or that it’s lawful.

Is there a new DPC website yet? No

When is it due? Soon

When did the GDPR become enforceable? May 25th 2018

What date is it today? November 4th 2018 

Makena Kelly in The Verge has an overview of what US legislators may be considering in their attempts to “fix” Facebook and Google’s behaviour as it relates to personal data. Just by the by, here’s a story from July: ‘Facebook, Amazon, and Google just spent record amounts of cash on lobbying Washington, DC’.

The enhanced edition of what geeks know as Convention 108 was signed by 20 states last month. Ireland and the UK are among the signatories. Jennifer Baker has a look at what that could mean for Brexit Britain securing an adequacy decision when they exit the EU.

This is an academic paper with a long title. It is, however, not all that long itself and well worth a read. ‘Responsibility for Data Protection in a Networked World – On the Question of the Controller, ‘Effective and Complete Protection’ and Its Application to Data Access Rights in Europe’ by Rene Mahieu, Joris van Hoboken and Hadi Asghari explores who is actually responsible for protection of personal data in a world in which almost everything is or can potentially be connected to everything else.

—-

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 this newsletter will be in your inbox again next weekend. See you then.

If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter do please forward it on to them.