* Posts by Cynical Pie

213 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jan 2018

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Spam crusade lands charity in hot water with data watchdog

Cynical Pie

Re: RNLI vs chuggers

'The British state is perfectly able to fund an adequate sea rescue service. Fortunately for it, the charity-funded RNLI gives it perfect cover for not bothering' See also Air Ambulances

Data watchdog tells off outsourcing giant for scanning staff biometrics despite 'power imbalance'

Cynical Pie

Despite the lack of published guidance the ICO's position on biometrics has been clear since I worked there in the early 2000's - dont use it if there are more proportionate or reasonable options.

In this case its clearly disproportionate

UK PM promises faster justice for Post Office Horizon victims

Cynical Pie

While the Post Office are clearly at fault I find it interesting that Fujitsu seem to be getting pretty much a free pass for the absolute trash they designed and provided.

Yes I know the system is only as good as the spec and what was requested etc etc but its inconceivable that Fujitsu didn't know the system was an absolute car crash and didn't work as intended.

CompSci academic thought tech support was useless – until he needed it

Cynical Pie
Pint

Re: Depends.

To be fair after a night on the ale with a curry/kebab chaser you might not want to light a match in a domestic 'powder room' either :)

Manchester's finest drowning in paperwork as Freedom of Information requests pile up

Cynical Pie

As they are asking for a comment/opinion it wouldn't be a valid FOI request anyway - it has to be for recorded information.

In my experience (FOI/DP is my day job) the Information Governance Team probably have responses they want to send but senior managers are basically being obstructive and wanting a different response so they are arguing the toss and delaying stuff.

Also they probably don't think it should be disclosed therefore aren't even looking for the information.

Biden urged to do something about Europe 'unfairly' targeting American tech

Cynical Pie

Re: Shall we go back in History

The United States has done more to uplift the human condition than any other nation on the face of the planet.... hmmm has it though? Has it really?

The printing press, the industrial revolution, sanitation systems, gunpowder, the computer, the jet engine... All invented/developed outside of the US and all have done way more to facilitate human development.

America and folk like you Dostoevsky (nice European name there) need to realise is that human development has been happening for many hundreds of years, not just since 1776

Cynical Pie

Re: Don't know whether to laugh or cry

Donald... did you forget your frog pills again?

Europe inches closer to insisting gig workers are treated as employees

Cynical Pie

Re: Not difficult

Another one of those benefits of brexit we were promised...

Magic beans anyone?

Unite the union claims Vodafone and Three merger is about 'corporate greed'

Cynical Pie

They're a phone company, its a given that their service is way south of effing terrible

NASA engineers scratch heads as Voyager 1 starts spouting cosmic gibberish

Cynical Pie

Re: A repeating pattern of ones and zeroes

If you squint you can just see the head of the Great A'Tuin

Cynical Pie
Joke

Re: Have they tried

guts... nuts... its a fine line with some users :)

The 15-inch MacBook Air just nails it

Cynical Pie

Re: Cost as reviewed?

Or you could read the article as it is mentioned

Buggy app for insulin-delivery device puts diabetes patients at risk of hypoglycemia

Cynical Pie

We are... And don't call me Shirley :)

US warns Iranian terrorist crew broke into 'multiple' US water facilities

Cynical Pie

So you're telling me password isn't a secure password?

who would ever have guessed... ***goes and changes to 'Password1' as no one will guess that***

Meta goes to war with FTC over right to profit from kids' personal data

Cynical Pie

At a wild guess I'd say cash and the ability to buy off large parts of the legislature

UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms

Cynical Pie

I think they are known as Old Etonians rather than criminals these days

Tesla sues Swedish government after worker rebellion cripples car biz

Cynical Pie

Re: Postal Service

Except its not.

Its their job to produce the number plates and send them out. Their responsibility ends at that point.

If the postal service choose not to deliver them that is an issue for the postal service.

Cynical Pie

Re: Postal Service

Elon, is that you?

Rhysida ransomware gang: We attacked the British Library

Cynical Pie

Re: We've engaged in illegal acts to obtain this data

And if you believe that I have a bridge you might be interested in... also I have some very impressive magic beans...

Home of the world's longest pleasure pier joins public sector leak club

Cynical Pie

Except the LA will have to have 95% of users complete training annually to access NHS data for social care purposes.

Its more a case of the people sending the response being understaffed and being under pressure to meet service standards by getting the responses out as quickly as possible and the team sending the data to them being too lazy to do the prep work to extract the information

Mars helicopter to try for new speed record on Thursday

Cynical Pie

Re: Cool

Bacon obviously

UK data watchdog warns Snap over My AI chatbot privacy issues

Cynical Pie

Ah the ICO with another stern telling off and wagging of the finger that will amount to the grand total of sweet FA knowing the current incumbent and his reluctance to properly enforce the law

UK Online Safety Bill to become law – and encryption busting clause is still there

Cynical Pie

The biggest surprise...

... is that no one in government has trotted out the old 'nothing to hide nothing to fear' excuse

Airbus takes its long, thin, plane on a ten-day test campaign

Cynical Pie

Re: in a 3-3 economy class configuration.

The trick with the 777 3-4-3 configuration is to book onto the back 2 rows where it is only 2-4-2 due to the narrowing of the fuselage.

The aisles are wider so you get more elbow room in an aisle seat and the window seats aren't as tight to the aircraft body.

You also get the bonus of the standing space by the rear doors to stretch your legs, look out of the window (at The Grand Canyon and Vegas for me as I was flying to LA) and the galley area where you can chat to the aircrew and get free reign over the drinks and snacks. BA have a very passable Brewdog IPA called Speedbird on their long haul flights along with all the shortbread you could consume in 10.5hrs.

UK rejoins the EU's €100B Horizon sci-tech funding program

Cynical Pie

The Turing Scheme...

... is much more than Science based.

It funded my daughter's trip to Zimbabwe to work on a game reserve doing conservation work and to go out and do community projects in Gweru where she was based.

Norway court upholds miniscule fine against Meta for flouting privacy rules

Cynical Pie

Re: GDPR works

Got to protect that sweet sweet tax revenue

Want tunes with that? India-made POS terminal includes a speaker

Cynical Pie

Re: A speaker and BluTooth in a PoS kit

Tell me you didn't read the article properly without telling me you didn't read the article properly

Northern Irish cops release 2 men after Terrorism Act arrests linked to data breach

Cynical Pie

The fact the disclosure log is unavailable doesn't stop people making requests so I am not sure why El Reg has asked that question of the PSNI.

All that is currently happening is that the PSNI aren't publishing the requests and responses on their website when they answer them.

They will still be issuing responses to the individuals who make a request or they are breaching FOI requirements.

US Republican party's spam filter lawsuit against Google dimissed

Cynical Pie

Gotta be able to fund The Orange One's bail somehow

Man arrested in Northern Ireland police data leak as more incidents come to light

Cynical Pie

Newsflash

The current IC will do absolutely nothing, zilch, nada.

He will issue a stern telling off as he can't be bothered to enforce the legislation and makes up punishments on a whim

You're not seeing double – yet another UK copshop is confessing to a data leak

Cynical Pie

Re: Captain paranoid

Sorry to tell you but those would potentially be valid FOI requests.

They don't need to mention FOI or go to a central contact point. They just need to ask a question about/of the authority and go to the authority.

Member of the public wouldn't see the distinction between members and the LA being a separate entity (which potentially they are for IG purposes) and the ICO would very much consider an FOI submitted to a member as being submitted to the Council for the purposes of FOI.

I think your IG lead needs to do some staff training sharpish

Cumbrian Police accidentally publish all officers' details online

Cynical Pie

Why exactly should you have the right to know the name of everyone who works in the public sector? And I mean a proper justifiable reason other than 'they are paid for by the taxpayer' because in my case its not true.

I work for a local authority but our service is paid for by income we generate so isn't funded by the taxpayer.

Finally if you had an ounce of intelligence you would know, certainly in the UK, all public sector salaries are already in the public domain.

Cynical Pie

Except its not just the DPA to be read, its also the Law Enforcement Directive, GDPR and a few other linked pieces of legislation... Oh and that 'not particularly long read' is almost 400 pages on its own

Northern Ireland police may have endangered its own officers by posting details online in error

Cynical Pie

WDTK doesn't actually care, it is a blight on society and a haven for green ink nutcases, the obsessed and the Free Men of the Land who believe the law doesn't apply to them (yet get surprisingly angry when their legal rights under laws they don't feel apply aren't applied to their benefit)

UK voter data within reach of miscreants who hacked Electoral Commission

Cynical Pie

You don't even need to complete the postal vote in the polling station. You can just hand the sealed envelope to the staff manning the station BUT only if it is in the correct LA area.

So for example in my Borough it is divided into 3 sections for the count and the envelope has to be handed in to a Polling Station taking their ballot box to the correct counting location for the Ward you are voting in.

Less of an issue for Parliamentary Elections as there is only one count location per constituency.

Cynical Pie

Re: Doubtful. Evidence?

50% turnout for a local government election... dream on.

In my nigh on 20 yr career as a Presiding Officer in a polling station we have never got within sight of 35% turnout for local elections.

Google launches $99 a night Hotel Mountain View for hybrid workers

Cynical Pie

And I'd wager the work still gets done and possibly more quickly and effectively than pre-pandemic

Post Office Horizon Inquiry calls for compensation to be brought forward

Cynical Pie

Re: They want to delay as long as possible ...

To a degree its worse than that.

When the Compensation scheme was set up you would assume it would be operated independently to ensure a fair process wouldn't you?

Well in this case no - the Post Office and Central Govt are responsible for operating and managing the compensation scheme so it has 100% been designed to operate as slowly and at as low a cost (in terms of payouts) as possible

Funnily enough, AI models must follow privacy law – including right to be forgotten

Cynical Pie

Re: 7 Data Protection Principles

Being pedantic but Accountability isn't a DP Principle.

It's Art 5(2) of GDPR which makes it a requirement for companies to be able to demonstrate compliance with Art 5(1) of GDPR which contains the 6 principles.

Cynical Pie

Re: 7 Data Protection Principles

The BA Monetary Penalty Notice (it is not and never has been a fine) in part was reduced because of Covid and the collapse of the travel industry and in part because for some daft reason the ICO sees fit to say what size they might issue a MPN for even before they have been through the statutory process.

The suggested MPN was based on a percentage of their turnover at the point it was announced. By the time the ICO had gone through the statutory process the backside had fallen out of the airline business and BA's turnover was much much smaller ergo their MPN was smaller.

That said the current incumbent IC, John Edwards, is a charlatan and more interested in soundbites and cosying up to the Government and big business than actually enforcing the law he is paid handsomely to oversee.

UK's proposed alt.GDPR will turn Britain into a 'test lab' for data harvesting

Cynical Pie

I mean its not as if most of us working in the Information Governance field haven't been saying since the Brexit vote that this would lead to us losing adequacy!!

The potential saving grace is that some larger companies will still operate to the standards of GDPR rather than the shoddy UK counterfeit version as if they operate in the EU then why would they go to the expense of running 2 different systems of information management?

That said this assumes the companies dont say 'sod this' and take their businesses out of the UK as it isnt worth the aggro.

This 'freeing from EU bureaucracy' will ultimately lead to less choice in financial services and the like as companies withdraw their products rom the UK but its OK, we have blue passports again (which we could always have had and are made in the EU)

Cynical Pie

Re: Can it just be delayed?

The problem we have now is that back in the 70s, 80's and early 90's most, if not all MPs had been working elsewhere prior to rocking up at Westminster.

Now we have a class of professional politicians, many of which only have 'real world' experience as a parliamentary researcher or the like - they have never worked anywhere other than the Westminster bubble.

God forbid we go back to previous iterations of parliament where the Minister for Health was a health professional!!

Yes I know that wasn't always the case but a lot of the time it was and we can't say parliament was the worse for it, especially given the current bunch of chancers, fraudsters and charlatans on all sides of the House

Cynical Pie

Re: Subject Rights?

There is no statutory requirement to have a formal data sharing process despite what the ICO may lead folk to believe.

Information Sharing Agreements are seen as a 'need to have' when in fact that isn't the case - they are best practice and a way for organisations to record/audit their processing and nothing more

Cynical Pie

Re: Subject Rights?

yeah good luck complaining to the ICO.

The current commissioner is more interested in soundbites and blocking critics on social media than actually enforcing the GDPR.

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Cynical Pie

Re: All your QWERTY belong to us...

Up vote for the Sir Pterry reference

Mega-data platform worth half a billion will suck in info from family doctors

Cynical Pie

Can I interest you in this bridge? No? The what about these magic beans...

Missing Titan sub likely destroyed in implosion, no survivors

Cynical Pie

Re: A fitting epitaph

I see this quite regularly at Archery comps where a lot of Archers use carbon/aluminium composite or full carbon arrows.

Catastrophic failures are more common with full carbons but carbon/aluminium arrows often split/crack.

My daughter's composite arrows split the second or third time she shot them as they had been hit by other arrows during a previous shoot and the point of damage just gave way as arrows by their nature flex when they leave the bow.

When they fully go they make an impressive noise that scares the brown stuff out of the rest of the shooting line :)

Brit data watchdog fines sleazy sales ops £250K for 'bombarding' folk with calls

Cynical Pie

Re: And stoning, how about a good stoning?

She did... She di.... ***voice deepens*** He did... he did

Australia to phase out checks by 2030

Cynical Pie
Trollface

Re: They still exist?

We aren't complaining about the spelling, merely pointing out your version is wrong

UK's GDPR replacement could wipe out oversight of live facial recognition

Cynical Pie

Re: The reward for your support

I had a very interesting chat with the then HO Junior Minister Andy 'King of the North' Burnham at the time.

He was responsible for ID Cards and wasn't particularly committed either way. The feeling I got was they saw the positives outweighing the negatives but as a rule they weren't overly sold on them either way.themselves

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