The Whys And Wherefores Of An Identity Register [KitBits 17.7]

The Stream on Al Jazeera covered the Indian government’s Aadhaar identity system yesterday. Get yourself a hot or cold beverage and devote half an hour of your time to this. As you watch it, here are some things to note in the context of the Irish government’s determination to push ahead with their voluntary-but-to-all-intents-and-purposes-mandatory Public Services…

May Roundup

This month there’s a fair bit about advertising and the power which combining disparate buckets of information about you offers to the world’s advertising companies, large and small. The Irish state’s continued quest to issue three million biometric-capable identity cards it signed a contract for without explaining why it thinks these cards are needed is…

April Roundup

This month brings some revealing peeks behind a few data curtains and an exploration of the soft soothing language of sharing with partners and keeping it all in the family (of companies). 1. Facial Recognition, As It’s Happening We’re essentially building an IT backbone, which can allow TSA or potentially air carriers or any other…

This Is The Sound Of Snooping [KitBits 17.6]

Rumour has it popular duo Simon & Garfunkel tinkered around with a song called ‘The Sound of Snooping’ for a while before a catchier line occurred to them. Anyway, here’s a dramatic quote to start off with “This case shows the new world we are all living in,” Jay Edelson, founder of the firm that brought the…

March Roundup

Join us, gentle readers, on a short adventure in which we compare and contrast the approaches and abilities of two neighbouring data protection authorities, visit a data protection summit sponsored and launched by the Minister for Data Protection which didn’t have a privacy policy and hear about the privacy concerns of the inventor of the…

Ordering Pizza In The Future [Video]

This is a short America Civil Liberties Union video from 2006. If it seemed like an extreme scenario when it was first made, it looks far more likely now.

Look At What I’m Saying, Not What I’m Doing [KitBits 17.5]

Update, 24/3/2017: A privacy policy has appeared on the Data Summit Dublin website.  It mentions the UK Companies Act 2006 and a possible fee of ten of the Queen’s best British pounds for a subject access request. It also seems that personal information collected by Happening Conferences will not be shared with the Department of…

Find My Phone [Video]

Some slightly unsettling Sunday morning viewing. The tracking device in your pocket knows an astonishing amount.

The Man Who Invented The Web Agrees [KitBits 17.4]

The web has turned twenty eight. Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the web, has a few thoughts on the challenges that face it. Number one on his list is ‘We’ve lost control of our personal data’. The current business model for many websites offers free content in exchange for personal data. Many of us…