- Our NHS data flogged off Archived Message
- Our NHS data flogged off - Mary May 10, 2020, 8:17 am
- Foxglove - who they are - Mary May 10, 2020, 8:57 am
- Babbs ex of 38degrees gives some cause for concern - why should an entire Laura Kuenssberg Tory bias - sashimi May 10, 2020, 9:13 am
- Re: Foxglove - who they are - Mary May 10, 2020, 9:49 am
- Babbs ex of 38degrees gives some cause for concern - why should an entire Laura Kuenssberg Tory bias - sashimi May 10, 2020, 9:13 am
- The extract above was from another openDemocracy article: - sashimi May 10, 2020, 10:40 am
- Foxglove - who they are - Mary May 10, 2020, 8:57 am
Posted by Mary
on May 10, 2020, 8:17 am
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'In 2014, as the deadly Ebola virus swept West Africa, global health organisations started touting big data as a solution. Researchers pushed mobile phone operators in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia to hand over their clients’ call records: sensitive details about who they’d contacted, when, and where they’d been. Despite questions over legality, many firms complied. It soon became clear the data was largely useless in stemming the spread of Ebola. But once the line had been crossed, there was no going back. As governments scramble to respond to COVID-19, Ebola should serve as a cautionary tale. Once again, private tech firms are being given unprecedented access to our private lives. In the UK, the government has announced what might be the largest handover of NHS patient data to private corporations in history. US tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Google – plus controversial AI films Palantir and Faculty – are now “assisting the NHS in tracking hospital resources” and in providing a “single source of truth” about the epidemic, in order to stem its spread. Whitehall sources have called this deal "unprecedented" – yet the government has given us almost no information about it. What we do know is that Faculty, an AI startup, is headed by Mark Warner – the brother of Ben Warner, who ran the controversial data operation for the Vote Leave campaign. Meanwhile Palantir, founded by Silicon Valley billionaire and close Trump ally Peter Thiel, is a data-mining firm best known for supporting the CIA’s counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Palantir has reportedly charged just £1 for its services to the government. Why? What does it get in return? Who is set to profit from this crisis? We urgently need answers. That’s why openDemocracy and Foxglove, a tech justice start-up, have just sent a legal letter demanding the UK government publishes details of its controversial data deals with big tech companies. We’ve given them until 11 May to comply. If they refuse, we may sue for publication in the courts. We cannot wait until the dust settles to find out what’s happened with our personal information. Sign up to hear more about this case from our partners Foxglove. Of course, the UK is not the only country beefing up surveillance amid the outbreak.' /.. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democracywatch-roma-hit-hard-coronavirus-crackdown/ |
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