Posts by Doctor Syntax 42272 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
At my last client before retirement "informal discussions" in the office were top management toys out of the pram shouting matches. As there was a factory space next to the office and all development work centred on driving that working at home wouldn't have been practical.
The company laptop issue is one that can be easily argued in IR35 terms. It's one I'd have used if challenged although in my case it would have applied to desktops and servers, the garage mechanic argument:
I am My company is hired to make some changes to my client's system. I may well use my own company's laptop as an aid but I need access to that system. My client's laptop provides that access. When your car needs servicing you take it to the garage. You don't expect the mechanic to do the work on his own car instead of yours do you?
All else apart, the economic model of commuting ever greater distances from ever wider areas into ever larger cities must be regarded as environmentally unsustainable. The pandemic has shown it's not necessary. The present escalation of fuel prices should be an indication that it's becoming economically infeasible. In the UK the return of rail strikes should be warning it might be impossible. Only the meanest intelligence (hi there, Rees-Mogg) can believe it can continue. It's time to consider the alternatives.
Some jobs such as logistics and manufacturing require physical presence but they're not part of the problem. Except for those catering to the immediate needs of the cities themselves, logistic businesses cluster around the transport network and property prices have long since squeezed manufacturing out of city centres.
The problem lies with office jobs and there the smart money must surely be looking at better ways. Long term home working might be possible and, in fact, preferable for some. For others it's been a strain because of the nature of their homes and new thinking is needed here.
For large employers there's the option of fragmenting their offices and scattering the fragments as smaller offices closer to where their employees live. For others the solution might be rent-a-desk arrangements; not the existing model of providing pieds-à-terre in urban centres but the equivalent of the fragmented office where the staff numbers are too small to support a stand-alone fragment.
As employment starts to move out of the cities the freed up former office space can become homes for those who prefer an urban life-style. Employment doesn't need to move out of the cities entirely. The physical urban structures aren't going to go away that easily, it's more a matter of achieving a balance so that those who want to live in cities can work there (or vice versa) and those who want to live outside cities don't need to commute for work.
Growing plants needs a supply of carbon dioxide. Whilst the astronauts' exhalations will supply this it's a closed system. Assuming 100% efficiency the total biomass, astronauts' body mass included, that can be sustained is entirely determined by the total mass of carbon dioxide and water that can be sent or found there.
"Basically, liars gradually get overwhelmed by the cognitive load of maintaining their pretense while those telling the truth don't have to."
This points to the basis of the BoJo technique. Don't overdo the cognitive load by maintaining the pretence of being consistent. Just say whatever you think the person you''re addressing wants to hear. Because they want to hear it they'll ignore the complete opposite waffle you're reported saying yesterday - or half an hour ago. If you can't be bothered remembering it why should they?
"Hmm might have overdone it with the meds....."
You might indeed. The value of PII isn't that only the data hoarders hold it, it's that it is unique for a given individual. The value to the data subject is intrinsic and not determined by the number of people holding it.
I can't off-hand think of a closer equivalent but this will do: it's like saying that if everyone were burgled then nobody's any the worse off because everyone else is in the same situation.
Let's settle for something easier. How about a standardised name and address entry form? For those who really can't - or can't be arsed - to type it in themselves they could have a matching text file and copy and paste it.
Yes, I'd put myself in the second category.
It would need some thought: no assumption that everyone lives in a "city", not assumption that all street addresses have a number and no assumption that postal codes are numeric.
There's a lot of data a business needs to survive. It's their data and possibly they may be a little more motivated to look after it. Maybe they won't but if they suffer a breach it's just their problem.
If it's customer data it's a lot of other peoples' problem. The significant difference there is trust: the customer's trust the business and the business fails to live up to that trust despite all the protestations about that after the event.
As to decentralising data, the general thrust of the article seems to be that it's the customer who looks after their own data. Let's say I want to order something online on this basis. What needs to happen in data handling:
1. I select what I want to buy, I go to the checkout page. I enter my name and delivery address. That's in my own memory where it's not open to a ransomware attack.
2. I enter my bank account details which I copy from my hard copy bank card. This may well be verified by the bank's own pop-up app. The bank already holds my details, that's inevitable. I hope that my bank is a lot more secure than the average retailer. It's not 100% but ultimately it's the bank's problem if they're not, they're regulated more effectively than the retailer. That last statement is worth reflecting on.
3. The bank confirms the purchase to the retailer.
4. The transaction is confirmed back to me on screen, possibly offering a PDF to download and I can take a note of that. No email is needed. I am, however, holding my copy of that, possibly on my computer although I could make a written note or print the PDF.
5. The retailer prints a picking/despatch note and a shipping label.
6. At this point the company doesn't really need to keep personal information online any longer and can delete it. A summary of the transaction without these details can stay on their system.
7. When I receive the goods I can retain the packing note and delete any reference to it on my computer or retain it at my own risk - I'm not placing anyone else at risk.
Before anyone gets het up about needing to keep this in case of delivery problems, warranty claims etc. they have this on the picking note with the personal data on it; once delivery is confirmed they can dispose of that. If I have a complaint down the line it's up to me to produce my copy of the despatch note or the electronic copy of the order acknowledgement if I chose to keep that.
The retailer's holding of my PII is limited to the time needed to print out the paperwork. My holding is at my choice. The long term holding of information by the retailer is more or less what they'd have held if I'd walked into a shop and paid cash for the item, a business model which has worked for a few thousand years.
If data is to be sold valuing it shouldn't present any problem at all. It's based on what customers* are prepared to pay for it. Ironically the data that's hard to value is that held by businesses who are more ethical and don't sell it on.
* That's the data customers, not the customers who are mere data subjects
"These messages included a phishing link that led to fake banking websites, which were used to harvest credentials."
Let's not forget the banks' culpability in this. They train their customers to be phished by sending emails, mostly marketing emails, with links in them. Two things should be made compulsory for banks:
1. No email sent to a customer should contain a link except for a few well-defined circumstances such as a password reset and certainly not without some previous interaction that ensures the customer is expecting it.*
2. Hammer home to the customers that any email purporting to be from the bank is fake, should be reported and the link should on no account be followed.
It probably wouldn't even be necessary for legislation to compel this. A regulatory requirement might be sufficient although legislation to make it a criminal offence to sign off sending such emails would be a good way to ensure the first requirement was obeyed.
* Ideally this should be eliminated by doing it off-net in a branch. Yes, real bank branches.
A few hundred quid would buy you a reasonable quality used microscope that could be used to project your mask image onto a die. But at best it would only get you down to micron resolution and at that resolution it would only cover a small area so for any reasonable sized die you'd need to do it in sections. With all that glass, of course, you'd have to forego UV sensitive materials and just stick to what can be activated in the visible spectrum.
