Unbelievable.

The U.K. govt does not want vaccine passports for the pub to keep us safe, but to ‘nudge’ supposedly vaccine-hesitant young people to get vaccinated.

Solve the problem (vaccine hesitancy).

No need to create an expensive, discriminatory, civil liberties problem.

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1375212056673144838

Michael Gove said in December 2020 that there were no plans for a vaccine passport:

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-551434…

No explanation of why this would be needed (especially when all@adults are vaccinated)
No explanation as to whether it would work (eg does vaccination stop transmission?)
No explanation for his U-turn from 1 month ago when he said this would not be needed

news.sky.com/story/there-wi… “Boris Johnson stressed the initial reopening of pubs and restaurants on 12 April, when customers can be served outdoors only, would be "unaffected" by any COVID certification plan”

So...why would vaccine passports be needed to go to the pub from August?

Fiona Hill: "I’ve been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades, and I know the signs of a coup when I see them.

Technically, what Trump attempted is what’s known as a “self-coup” and Trump isn’t the first leader to try it." 1/n

politico.com/news/magazine/… There’s a standard coup “checklist” analysts use to evaluate coups. We can evaluate Trump’s moves to prevent the peaceful transfer of executive power against it." 2/n

"Some app developers were not aware who their users' location data ends up with. Even if a user examines an app's privacy policy, they may not realize how many different industries, companies, or govt agencies are buying some of their most sensitive data"

vice.com/en/article/jgq… "U.S. law enforcement purchase of such information has raised questions about authorities buying their way to location data that may ordinarily require a warrant to access."

I will be on @BBCWorld at 14.45 GMT talking with @bbcaaron about the state of technology investment in the UK this year -- in spite of everything

telegraph.co.uk/technology/202… Global tech founders back London-based start-up fund

Support from likes of Eric Schmidt and Tim Steiner underlines momentum in Europe’s venture capital scene

ft.com/content/bbf74c…

BBC News - Coronavirus: NHS reveals source code behind contact-tracing app bbc.co.uk/news/technolog… "Prof Christophe Fraser- an epidemiologist advising NHSX - said there are 2 main benefits to choosing a centralised system: :
(1) it made it possible to ask people to self-diagnose rather than wait for test results, because any mass attempt to abuse the process could be detected"

ICO opens investigation into use of facial recognition in King's Cross theguardian.com/technology/201… “Scanning people’s faces as they lawfully go about their daily lives in order to identify them is a potential threat to privacy that should concern us all,” Denham (@iconews) said. “That is especially the case if it is done without people’s knowledge or understanding.”