Petard

One more though on the GDPR and Pirate Hunting, if we (and the courts) consider the use of a home tcp/ip address as inconclusive proof that the bill holder (or anyone specific) used the device, then the IP address cannot be considered personal data. There might be a personal petard and hoisting nexus occurring here. …

Brexit Day

The idiots have sent a letter to Tusk. A sad day for both the UK and the EU. The Daily Mash reports Jünker as saying that she might have used e-mail; most people find it easier.

A more fitting comment was made last week by Esteban Pons, a Spanish Conservative and the EPP’s senior Brexit spokesman who made a speech commemorating the EU’s foundation and included the phrase,

… Leaving Europe is not leaving a market, it is leaving shared dreams. We can have a common market, but if we do not have common dreams, we have nothing. Europe is the peace….

I expect he and I disagree with how a common market should work but the EU has not had a first division champion since Roy Jenkins quit front line politics … another debt we owe New Labour. We are still not arguing that the idea of a united Europe is worthwhile having manifestly failed to raise it in the referendum. Anyway, here’s a clip from Pons speech,



The other piece of news published today is this piece from the Guardian, which highlights eight aspects of the EU’s negotiating position and priorities, about timing and scheduling of the negotiations, the financial bill, reciprocal citizenship & residency rights, the border with Eire, trade, the court, transition & ratification. …

Bifurcation

The Guardian has a long piece on the Tories 2015 election campaign and explains why some of the constituency campaigns have been investigated by the the Police. It hinges on the allocation of cost to the low limit constituency campaigns and the higher limit national campaigns. The Electoral Commission has investigated the battle bus costs and stated that,

“has found no evidence to suggest that the party had funded the BattleBus2015 campaign with the intention that it would promote or procure the electoral success of candidates”

apart from the planned location of the whistle stops.

The Guardian also quotes the Electoral Commission as saying,

“coaches of activists were transported to marginal constituencies to campaign alongside or in close proximity to local campaigners, …..

“it is apparent that candidate campaigning did take place during the BattleBus2015 campaign

 …

Restrictions

Just looking at my notes from the BCS Legal Day and while some are still hanging on for Brexit saving them from the GDPR, which it won’t, it becomes necessary to understand the wiggle room left by the GDPR.

Firstly, there is the competency limitations of Union itself, it cannot legislate for national & public security nor for the criminal justice system, these exclusions are stated in Article 23 Restrictions and also include (or exclude if that’s how you see it), the management of professions and the pursuit of civil justice. The Restrictions clause does however require the member state to act proportionately and respect the Charter of Fundamental Rights. In addition, there is room for national, member state, variances on the protection of employee data and the definition of public sector, impacting the need for a DPO. …

Datenkraken

Stephen Bush examines Amber Rudd’s Marr interview, look at the obvious errors and then moves away from encryption, and onto censorship. He doesn’t talk about the means, but states that the strict definition & separation of liability between a carrier and publisher gives facebook, youtube and twitter the excuse to avoid taking responsibility for the fake news and hate speech that they propagate. Will Hutton’s article on the malign influence of the  the Datenkraken  on free speech and enlightenment values is another dimension of Bush’s critique; one that requires a longer reply. …

Blame

Tim explores the idiocy and ignorance of the Home Secretary who looks at whether further regulating  messaging software might be helpful in reducing incidents such as the recent deadly assaults in Westminster. She already has the powers to mandate back doors in messaging software and a large knife should already be hard to get. But I note that no-one is asking if the car manufacturer, Hyundai according to Tim,  could have done more. …

Remaining

The Police estimated that 100K people attended the “Unite for the EU” march on Saturday; we used to double the police numbers in order to gauge the true size of the demo. Actually it’s been hard to discover its size with some sources describing the attendance as in the 1000’s. The TUC’s “March for the Alternative” in 2011 is reported on wikipedia as being between 1/4 & 1/2 million, but 100,000 is big; obviously not as big as the 1m that marched against the Iraq war in 2003 and that changed little.

The BBC’s reporting of the march has been complained about; describing 100,000 as thousands would seem to be a deliberate attempt to downplay the demo and its politics, we’ll see what happens there.

I am sorry that I couldn’t be there. …