Btw 2020 and 2021 Europol landed enormous volumes of data as a part of three mega-hack operations that dismantled encrypted communication systems. This would become the starting point of the agency's AI ambitions. New investigation out with @giacomoza.bsky.social and @stavinoha.bsky.social

Shall we care about Europol? The answer is... Read our latest investigation to catch a glimpse about what the agency is doing to accelerate the AI transformation of policing across the EU, with minimal safeguards. www.computerweekly.com/news/3666344...

Microsoft must immediately end any involvement with the “Israeli authorities’ systemic repression of Palestinians” and work to prevent its products or services being used to commit further “atrocity crimes”, civil society groups have urged www.computerweekly.com/news/3666328...

The UK’s policing minister has confirmed the government will consult on the use of live facial recognition by law enforcement before expanding its use throughout England, but so far, the technology has been deployed with minimal public debate or consultation www.computerweekly.com/news/3666323...

More than 190 internet shutdowns have been recorded in 41 African countries since 2016, the African Digital Rights Network has found, as governments across the continent seek to normalise the use of digital blackouts to suppress dissent www.computerweekly.com/news/3666318...

Policing data hosted in Microsoft’s hyperscale cloud infrastructure could be processed in more than 100 countries, but the tech giant is obfuscating this information from its customers, Computer Weekly can reveal. www.computerweekly.com/news/3666320...

Microsoft is refusing to tell Scottish policing bodies where and how the sensitive law enforcement data uploaded to its cloud services will be processed, citing “commercial confidentiality” www.computerweekly.com/news/3666298...

The European Commission has been ignoring calls to reassess Israel’s data adequacy status for over a year, despite “urgent concerns” about the country’s data protection framework and conduct in Gaza www.computerweekly.com/news/3666282...

The European Commission has been ignoring calls to reassess Israel’s data adequacy status for over a year, despite “urgent concerns” about the country’s data protection framework and conduct in Gaza www.computerweekly.com/news/3666282...

Technology firms globally are actively “aiding and abetting” Israel’s “crimes of apartheid and genocide” against Palestinians, said United Nations special rapporteur in an urgent call for the companies to cease their business activities in the region www.computerweekly.com/news/3666269...

A good overview of the thorny implications of the newly enlisted tech execs as reservists by @sklovig.bsky.social with commentary by the excellent @sophiagoodfriend.bsky.social and myself.

Predictive policing technologies infringe human rights “at their heart” and should be prohibited in the UK, argues Green MP Siân Berry, after tabling an amendment to the government’s forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill www.computerweekly.com/news/3666266...

I was glad to speak with @sklovig.bsky.social about the militarisation of the US’ AI industry It’s an important look at how Silicon Valley is working with the Trump admin to turbocharge AI weapons development

Four Silicon Valley executives have been recruited into a specialist tech-focused unit of the US Army Reserves in a bid to “bridge the commercial-military tech gap” and make the armed forces “more lethal.” www.computerweekly.com/news/3666266...

refreshing to find out that some bombs are too unseemly to drop

v cool how everyone told the home office this would suck, and they did it anyway and scrapped the physical residency cards as a bonus

UK error-prone eVisa system is ‘anxiety-inducing’ People having technical errors with the Home Office eVisa system explain the psychological toll of not being able to reliably prove their immigration status in the face of a hostile and unresponsive bureaucracy www.computerweekly.com/news/3666253...

The rapid proliferation of ‘biometric mass surveillance technologies’ throughout the UK’s public and private sectors is taking place without legal certainty or adequate safeguards for the public www.computerweekly.com/news/3666248...

Seven civil society organisations are calling on European Commissioner Michael McGrath to rescind the UK’s data adequacy status, citing major concerns around the country’s ongoing erosion of privacy and data rights www.computerweekly.com/news/3666253...

Essex Police discloses ‘incoherent’ facial recognition assessment - an equality impact assessment of Essex Police LFR deployments is plagued by inconsistencies and poor methodology, undermining its claim that use of the tech will not be discriminatory www.computerweekly.com/news/3666244...

Electronic visa data and biometric technologies will be used by the UK’s immigration enforcement authorities to surveil migrants living in the country and to ‘tighten control of the border’, attracting strong criticism from migrant support groups www.computerweekly.com/news/3666238...

The MoJ is using one algorithm to predict people’s risk of reoffending and another to predict who will commit murder, but @statewatch.bsky.social says the profiling in these systems raises ‘serious concerns’ over racism, classism and data inaccuracies www.computerweekly.com/news/3666231...

AI surveillance towers place migrants in ‘even greater jeopardy’: The use of autonomous surveillance towers throughout the English coast is contributing to people's deaths in the English Channel @migrantsrights.bsky.social @samuelstorey.bsky.social www.computerweekly.com/news/3666223...

The Met Police is set deploy permanent live facial recognition cameras in Croydon from summer 2025, but local councillors say the decision – which has taken place with no community input – will further contribute the over-policing of Black communities www.computerweekly.com/news/3666223...

Dozens of technology firms are continuing to put the lives and livelihoods of supply chain workers at risk by failing to meet even the most basic due diligence expectations around forced labour and human rights abuses, finds sectoral analysis www.computerweekly.com/news/3666218...

The UK government says reforms to police data protection rules will help to simplify law enforcement data processing, but critics argue the changes will lower protection to the point where the UK risks losing its European data adequacy www.computerweekly.com/news/3666217...

It is currently impossible to assess Police Scotland’s use of retrospective facial recognition for efficacy and fairness because the force does not collect meaningful information that would enable a proper evaluation www.computerweekly.com/news/3666209...

Driving licence data could be used for police facial recognition www.computerweekly.com/news/3666205...

AI Action Summit review: Differing views cast doubt on AI’s ability to benefit whole of society www.computerweekly.com/news/3666204...

"The bill bans the deliberate use of face coverings to conceal a person’s identity during a protest... criminalises the climbing of specified war memorials, making it clear that such disrespectful behaviour is unacceptable" = it'll be illegal to be cold and disrespectful? www.gov.uk/government/p...

A group of Kenyan data workers whose labour provides the ‘backbone’ of modern artificial intelligence systems set up the @datalabelers.bsky.social to improve their working conditions and raise awareness about the challenges they face www.computerweekly.com/news/3666193...

UK police forces are “supercharging racism” through their use of automated “predictive policing” systems, as they are based on profiling people or groups before they have committed a crime, according to Amnesty International www.computerweekly.com/news/3666195...

Google parent company Alphabet has dropped its pledge to not use artificial intelligence in weapons systems or surveillance tools, citing a need to support the national security of “democracies” www.computerweekly.com/news/3666190...

Really looking forward to this two-part documentary, which I had the privilege of contributing to through research and reporting. Part I premiers on Al Jazeera on January 30—don’t miss it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtxs...

Sky Betting ‘parasitic’ in targeting problem gambler: A recovering gambling addict has won his case against Sky Betting in the UK High Court, which ruled the provider acted unlawfully in using his personal data for profiling and targeted advertising @awo.agency www.computerweekly.com/news/3666184...

People are already having trouble proving their immigration status while travelling back to the country, just two weeks after the UK’s transition to an eVisa system, despite repeated warnings to the Home Office that these issues would occur www.computerweekly.com/news/3666181...

New report details how asylum seekers in Greece's EU-funded refugee camps are subjected to invasive phone confiscations & legally dubious AI surveillance systems Findings include two Israeli defense-linked firms involved in surveillance at Greek camps www.computerweekly.com/news/3666182...

Delighted to have published this by @danmcquillan.bsky.social in @computerweekly.bsky.social I'm always open to pitches for opinion pieces, as well as news and feature writing. Get in touch!

In which @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social speaks about the politics of ‘techno-refusal’, and the lessons that can be learned from a clandestine group of French IT workers who spent the early 1980s sabotaging technological infrastructure www.computerweekly.com/feature/AI-i...

Refugee lawyer and author @petramolnar.com speaks about the extreme violence people on the move face at borders across the world, and how increasingly hostile anti-immigrant politics is being enabled by a ‘lucrative panopticon’ of surveillance technologies www.computerweekly.com/news/3666149...

Critical computing expert @danmcquillan.bsky.social speaks to Computer Weekly about the top-down imposition of artificial intelligence on society, and how it is a fundamentally political technology shaped by humanity’s most reactionary tendencies www.computerweekly.com/news/3665378...

Media studies professor and author @gavinmueller.bsky.social speaks to Computer Weekly about the history of resistance to automation, and why Luddite perspectives and practices are useful in pushing for more equitable digital futures www.computerweekly.com/feature/AI-i...

Military technology experts gathered in Vienna have warned about the detrimental psychological effects of AI-powered weapons, arguing that implementing systems of algorithmic-enabled killing dehumanises both the user and the target www.computerweekly.com/news/3665825...

The ethical justifications for developing and deploying AI in the military do not hold up to scrutiny, especially those regarding the use of autonomous weapon systems, says AI ethics expert @elkeschwarz.bsky.social www.computerweekly.com/news/3655321...

Globally dispersed digital gig workers tasked with training AI algorithms are in the process of coordinating collective responses to common challenges they face in the workplace, says @turkopticon.bsky.social lead organiser @krystalkauffman.bsky.social www.computerweekly.com/news/3665462...

a thread of stories on The Police Cloud Saga the long and short of it is UK police have been massively expanding their use of hyperscale cloud systems over the last few years with little to no regard for the UK's law enforcement-specific data rules go figure

In this essential guide, Computer Weekly looks at the use of facial recognition technology by UK police forces, including the points of contention around its deployment so far and where it’s heading next www.computerweekly.com/feature/UK-p...

The Met Police has claimed its LFR use in Lewisham is supported by the majority of residents and local councillors, but a community impact assessment (CIA) obtained by CW shows there has been minimal direct consultation with residents www.computerweekly.com/news/3666168...

English Channel surveillance used ‘to deter and punish migrants’ www.computerweekly.com/feature/Engl...

A likely glitch in Amazon Payments resulted in hundreds of Mechanical Turk workers being suspended from the platform without proper explanation or pay www.computerweekly.com/news/3666128...