Privacy Prosecutions.

How fab! The ICO has an enforcement actions page where it lists their enforcement actions. You can filter it by type of action and date. The type of actions include prosecutions of which they have conducted 25, 18 of those this year! Has someone woken up? This blog looks at the activity of the CPS and the Courts in defending privacy rights, dated 2014, averaging around 100 prosecutions each year. How real is a threat of GDPR enforcement? Although fines which do not require a prosecution by the ICO will/may hurt! …

MXV

So the momentum stitch-up has kicked off big time. I think I’ll constrain this little post to the e-democracy part of the debate. The momentum bureaucracy are proposing that the coming sovereign national conference is framed, decided or influenced by a digital platform and have conveniently launched one. It is called MXV and is based on a product called Consul which seems to have been built for Madrid City Council. When you arrive at the home page, you are offered the opportunity to “sign in” or “Join Momentum”. If you are already a member, and have not been issued with a password, you’re fucked. There is one email address on the site, to use if one has a problem. I have now mailed them twice to ask for login credentials, with proof that I am a member. (The second mail was sent today.) I’d have expected them to use getsatisfaction or user voice for their help desk interface since people can help themselves and see what’s happening; they seem to be learning from the Labour Party and the whole thing is just a black box bit bucket. Actually it’s several steps better because it’s open source, although I have not yet sought to prove that this code line is in use and I don’t do Ruby so I can’t check the vote counting routines. The original product offers oauth support.

What we have here is the construction of the electoral roll in secret. This isn’t good enough. It’s why we have polling agents, judicial review and even international observers in our public elections and why I argued that the Labour Party needs an independent reviewer of its own elections to make sure that the behaviour of the returning officer and his or her agents is transparent. This is all before we measure the value of the conference, the debate and the mandating meetings,

If this is the new e-democracy epitomising new politics, then frankly it’s wanting. …

Alienation

Early last week, some Union brothers were solving the problems of the world and we were considering Tom Watson’s new proletariat of the self employed. Firstly, we need to recognise that not everyone wants to be a taxi driver, but secondly that the drive to self-employment turns people who are good at something into doing something else, from being a skilled and experienced trades worker into a sales person, credit controller, Head of Legal and accountant. Most don’t want to do this and initially outsource this work to a third party or often an insurance company and guess where the value is expropriated and customer stickiness occurs. The trend to monopoly and scale, and “ownership” of the customer relationship disintermediates the skills supplier and for the consumer, It becomes impossible to hire a plumber, electrician or odd job person; you have to go to a large provider which are either medium scale or massive. There is no personal liberation in this supply chain. …

Castro

Fidel Castro died last week. This re-opened a debate around the world, in the UK and the Labour Party as to the appropriate response; it seems we have to sum up his life and the Cuban society he led in one of two words, goody or baddy!

Others point at Dr Denise Baden’s more balanced defence on the BBC; she makes the point that if the USA were to be measured through the same lens, it would be found wanting. Otherwise it’s the 2nd best health service in the world, massive improvements in life expectancy and literacy and support for the anti-apartheid movement vs. the imprisonment of dissidents and oppositionists and the restoration of the death penalty. Here’s what Amnesty International has to say; its report places Cuba’s response in the context of the USA’s illegal embargo, but at the end of the day it’s no excuse.

Like life, Castro’s legacy will be painted in shades of grey.

However, the event of his death has led to yet more bitching in the Labour Party since Corbyn and the Party’s leadership recognise and applaud the achievements of Cuban revolution while the right want to emphasis Castro’s dictatorial and oppressive behaviour.

ooOOOoo

I had reason to examine the World Bank’s World Governance Index and following Denise Baden’s example compared the USA and Cuba. As she predicted, the USA doesn’t do so well. I made an error and have temporarily removed the chart. I mis-transcribed the Cuba numbers. Cuba underscores the USA in all 6 categories, although its hard to believe that it does so badly in Govt. Effectiveness (7.7% percentile) given its health and education successes. …

Petards

To Airbnb’s chagrin, judge allows San Francisco rental law to stand, which mandates that landlords register with the city council; the law was originally sponsored by AirBnB but they are now liable for fine for contracts where the host is not registered. Hoist by one’s own petard.

Are AirBnB parasites? Or do they create new supply? It’s becoming more obvious that they are cheaper partly because their hosts avoid regulatory costs that other accommodation providers need to comply with. …