Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #DatabaseState

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Take 15 mins. Watch this video. It's more important to you than you know.

This is what China is doing, but Western governments are on exactly the same path #technologically; they just have a different set of #rationalisations.

The #DatabaseState isn't coming. It's already here.
It doesn't matter if your Government's #justification is #innovation ("AI is cool!"), #PublicSafety ("Think of the kids!"), or #efficiency ("People are expensive, let's use algorithms instead") - installing the #tools of #totalitarianism only ends up in one place.

It was true...
...of @ukhomeoffice's centralised #biometric National Identity Register - the heart of the #IDcards scheme in the 2000s - and is as true of @DCMS's "Identity & Attributes Trust Framework" 👇 of which the first 'adopters' include the #HomeOffice (again)...

adalovelaceinstitute.org/blog/digital-i…
Read 4 tweets
Here's a fun #NINO - the UK's National Insurance Number - [Thread] to start the weekend 👇

Maybe I should do an #NHSnumber one sometime? It's a fascinating story, which (ironically) starts with these...
[With thanks to @guy_herbert, @TomSamaki, @PrivacyMatters & others for encouragement!]

Before I start a geeky 'deep dive' on the #NHSnumber, to provide some (personal/professional) context that will hopefully become apparent, I'll just drop these two images here:
So, to begin.

After the Second World War, in a time when we started to think (again) what a #civilised society would be, and when our leaders tried to agree #principles like #UDHR that might prevent the recurrence of genocide, and support #dignity and #HumanRights for all...
Read 32 tweets
Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry (with laughter).

By the time #VaccinePassports are ready, they will be absolutely pointless! Because, as we've said all along, once enough folks have been #vaccinated there'll be no need for them...

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/0… Image
...'cos that's the whole *point* of #HerdImmunity (done the right way), unless the Government's going to start demanding we have #MMRpassports, #FluPassports and the like?

This latest bit of #COVIDtheatre just turned into #farce - unless, of course, there's an ulterior motive...
...like, for example, @DCMS's current push to get everyone to adopt its risible #DigitalIdentity "#TrustFramework":
gov.uk/government/pub…

or @GDSTeam's "#SingleSignOn", the architecture of which looks suspiciously like a #NationalIdentityRegister:

insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2021/01/07/the… Image
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Good piece by @bryanglick on the #IDkerfuffle:

computerweekly.com/blog/Computer-…

This bit 👇 being the closest to the truth that I've seen.

Of course, the 'DCS pilot' (ukauthority.com/articles/gds-b…) is only @HM_Passport, not @DVLAgovuk - and (2) suggests ignorance of existing legislation... Image
...(3) is commercial ass-covering & wishful thinking for a *Government* ID; you want 'em to be #accountable?! 🤣

(4) would have been sensible at any point, but even given #PornID it took pass-scheme.org.uk *20 YEARS* to get round to even consulting on it...
...(5) where do you think #DCS came from? Rebranding's easy. Ditto code. Operationalisable, citizen-protecting #principles far less so: gov.uk/government/upl…

And (6)? Good to see people agree with @NO2ID, but it's not just the #DatabaseState they're concerned about any more...
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In the 00s we phrased it, "Stop the #DatabaseState".

I'm doubly glad to see this: firstly because it's great to see the next generation pick up the refrain. Secondly 'cos they're applying the appropriate level of profanity!
By the way, if you want to know who coined the phrase #DatabaseState, it was @guy_herbert (in the early 'id-core' discussions of @NO2ID in 2004).

Here he is today:


And for a list of shit we helped stop, read Section 3 of this:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
That some of the very same politicians who professed to oppose the #DatabaseState back in 2010 so blindly now worship the #algorithm shows how little they ever actually #understood. Also how little they can be #trusted...

WTF else do they think "data-driven Government" means?
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"Now it has emerged that ministers approved a settlement whose specific terms were that the £57.75m pay-out was *not intended for convicted claimants* – although they are among the worst-hit victims of the #Horizon [@PostOffice IT system] scandal."

ukcampaign4change.com/2020/08/06/ast…
Thought the institution itself does have previous form... 👇

Some impressive digging by Eleanor Shaikh; more here: postofficetrial.com/2019/11/the-po… for those who want the more recent blow-by-blow.

Also here, from Barrister Paul Marshall: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc…

HT @tonyrcollins Image
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And so it begins...

"If you won't put your details on this list, you ain't coming in" is a slippery slope - via "#ImmunityPassports"? - to the (digital) #PapersPlease culture that the #DatabaseState proponents have always wanted.

Muse on that while you sup your pint.
N.B. It's also a wicked marketing set-up for when/if the #nhsxCovid19app launches: "Oh, you're #surveilling yourself, madam - please walk right in! No need for that inconvenient list any more..."

What other #freedoms will folk #surrender for a mere 100cm?
Please note, I am not advising against - in fact I endorse! - sensible #clinical & #PublicHealth advice. Problem is, they just crashed into @10DowningStreet's idea of the #economy. (About which we'll be told more shortly, no doubt...)

Guess who loses?
Read 3 tweets

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