WELCOME to Connected Rights, your bun in the oven of digital rights news and analysis. A DECADE'S WORTH OF BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARIES WRONGLY authorised the intelligence agencies to collect as much telecommunications as they liked, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has found after a lot of bugging (pardon the pun) by Privacy International. Essentially, the foreign secretaries … Continue reading When spies get to decide surveillance is OK
Even Big Tech is worried about facial recognition
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your slice in the toaster of digital rights news and analysis. MICROSOFT HAS DONE SOMETHING VERY UNUSUAL FOR a big tech firm. It has warned that a recent, popular technological development – facial recognition – is dangerous and needs regulating. In a blog post, Microsoft legal chief Brad Smith said facial recognition "can … Continue reading Even Big Tech is worried about facial recognition
Tech’s perversion of the democratic process
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your gambol through the wheat fields of digital rights news and analysis. FACEBOOK WILL INCUR THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE FINE in the UK over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced today. That fine is only £500,000, because the incident happened in the pre-GDPR days, but it's still not a … Continue reading Tech’s perversion of the democratic process
Google and Facebook’s home state is the new privacy battleground
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your tip of the iceberg of digital rights news and analysis. CALIFORNIA HAS PASSED A LAW THAT CAN be best described as "GDPR-lite" – like the EU law, AB 375 forces companies to say what data they hold, why they hold it and where it goes, lets consumers object to their data … Continue reading Google and Facebook’s home state is the new privacy battleground