Oh boy! We're gonna have some fun with this one 🤣

@DHSCgovuk finally responded (after FOUR delays) to my #FOI request about the #JointBiosecurityCentre 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

TL;DR: Contradicting its own published statements, official procedures & Codes, #DHSC says it doesn't hold anything...
Here is @DHSCgovuk's response:

whatdotheyknow.com/request/696875…

and, for reference, here is a snapshot of the GOV.UK page about #JBC, taken 4 days after #DHSC's reply:

web.archive.org/web/2021040210…

So, what did DHSC say? I asked for a copy of the "establishing document"...
...for the #JointBiosecurityCentre, a £9 BILLION* new directorate** of @DHSCgovuk, and...

__
*According @CMO_England's evidence to Parliament last July:
researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-pol…

**According to its webpage, "#JBC was established as a new #directorate within DHSC on 1 June 2020".
...@DHSCgovuk says: "JBC's part of TestandTrace, so we don't need one".

Nope, sorry - you do!

"NHS Test & Trace" is a *service*; #JBC is a *directorate* delivering some of the statutory duties of @MattHancock, just like @PHE_uk.

That #TestandTrace isn't listed as an ALB on...
...either @DHSCgovuk's own website...

gov.uk/government/pub…

or on GOV.UK's list of Departments, agencies and public bodies...

gov.uk/government/org…

...should be a clue!

Hiding a £9 billion DIRECTORATE, set up by spooks, behind a (mere) SERVICE however...
...massive that service may be, must be breaking all *sorts* of government/civil service rules.

All such Bodies have #Boards, and Gov't procedure (and #accountability) requires those Boards have to have #OperatingFrameworks - which must include HOW THEY WORK WITH EACH OTHER...
...see, e.g. gov.uk/government/pub…

On a side note, it's likely the new #DirectorGeneral of the #JBC (applications close 11 April 2021: civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?j…) is gonna find data "partnerships" tricky beyond the #COPInotices, without formal standing and legitimate #DSAs...
The answer to my Q2 is utter bollocks.

@DHSCgovuk has to have formal agreements between *itself* and its own #ArmsLengthBodies, cf. the Code on Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments - and the requirements are VERY specific about the #governance of #ALBs 👇👇👇
And @DHSCgovuk's answer to my Q3 is plainly evasive.

It admits #JBC "utilises" #DPIAs - which meets my wider definition of "operational steps JBC has taken to ensure robust privacy and ethical standards are upheld" - but says #DHSC (but notably not #TestandTrace) "holds" them...
...thereby only emphasising the need for formal agreements between bodies of various types, with varying #statutory duties and obligations. Lest it appear that, e.g. #JBC is nothing more than a @DHSCgovuk data processor...

...which might be(come) inconvenient!
Clarification: according @cabinetofficeuk's 'Public Bodies Handbook'

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

given its DG, budget and role, #JBC should be an #ExecutiveAgency (like @PHE_uk) not an #ALB.

Doesn't affect my basic point, as @DHSCgovuk must have #FrameworkAgreements with its #EAs.

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More from @EinsteinsAttic

4 Apr
Predictably, @Facebook is acting as if its liability ended when it "patched the vulnerability" in its systems which allowed the exfiltration of *half a billion* people's personal details 🤦🏻‍♂️🤬

If @ICOnews & @DPCIreland fail to act, then what is the literal bloody point of them? Image
If 'data is the new oil' - it isn't, but bear with me - then this ONGOING #privacy disaster is the #DeepwaterHorizon of data breaches.

@bp_plc had to set up a $20 billion #compensation fund to pay for damage for which it was responsible; why should @Facebook get away with this?
RIGHT NOW @Facebook should be sending messages to all its affected users, (a) apologising for its negligence/incompetence, (b) telling them what they can do to keep themselves safe, and (c) offering to compensate people for the difficulties it's causing them.

Of course it won't.
Read 6 tweets
3 Apr
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
Read 4 tweets
13 Mar
*sigh*

Opening what I suspect will become a very long [Thread] on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (#PCSCBill) which, having been introduced last Tuesday, gets its #SecondReading *next* Tuesday - #precipitous, to say the least...

bills.parliament.uk/bills/2839
While it is all too often merely lip service, the Ministerial statement of #HumanRights compliance on the cover of this Bill 👇 is particularly #hypocritical, given its actual contents...
Many have been writing about the impact of this proposed legislation on lawful #protest, notably @IanDunt...

politics.co.uk/comment/2021/0…

...who, critically, picks up on the extraordinary #HenryVIII power @pritipatel is trying to grab.

(Let's hope THAT one gets struck quickly!)
Read 16 tweets
12 Mar
Noting that, just like the #AppsLibrary, #DTAC *still* doesn't have a required section on clinical #efficacy - and that #impacts are much more than just (avoiding) #risks - alongside focusing on the #algorithms and #data, have you considered asking a few more basic questions... Image
...such as:

1) Will the proposed intervention have a direct impact on health, mental health and/or wellbeing?

If so, what specifically is the intended impact and how will it be measured? If not, why are you doing it?

2) Will the proposed intervention interact with or have...
...any impacts on social, economic and/or environmental factors that would 'indirectly' affect health?

If so, what are they and how will they be measured - and, if necessary, mitigated? If not, provide evidence of ALL of the potential impacts you have actually considered...
Read 5 tweets
12 Mar
"We are the #Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. #ResistanceIsFutile."

theverge.com/2021/3/12/2232… Image
So if one-fifth of @Facebook's employees work on #AR/#VR, have all of them done a stint as a content #moderator? And given its toxic business model why doesn't #Facebook have at least as many *employees* (not contractors) working on #ContentModeration as it does AR?
Also, whether you believe #data '#TheNewOil' or that a better analogy is #ToxicWaste, for #BigTech / the #platforms the result's the same.

Using ML/DL/AI/AR/VR to extract value involves energy-intensive processing and doesn't factor in other externalities like cultural damage...
Read 4 tweets
30 Jan
I have a few questions on the whole #Article16 row, and row-back.

Though I understand it's FAR more exciting to report on the inevitable political #PileOn / #AxeGrinding / #CasusBelli, there is actually an agreed Protocol and procedures.

So...
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-558655…
1a) Have folks read #Article16 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland?

It's on p13 of this PDF: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl… and is quite short [left pic].

1b) Have they read Annex 7 [right pic, p62 of PDF] which describes the procedures to be followed?
Assuming the answers to (1a) & (1b) are Yes:

2) Given the EU appears to have considered these to be "exceptional circumstances" was the UK notified via the #JointCommittee, and was all relevant information provided?

(Papers should be here, eventually: ec.europa.eu/info/relations…)
Read 8 tweets

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