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Google takes down Indian app that removed Chinese ones: spokesman

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The app, “Remove China Apps”, had become top trending free app on Google’s mobile app store in India with more than five million downloads since late May. Its popularity rose amid calls for a boycott of Chinese mobile apps in India during a Himalayan border dispute between the two nations.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-china-google/google-takes-down-indian-app-that-removed-chinese-ones-spokesman-idUSKBN23A0QU

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Whilst they are diverting our attention elsewhere, the UK government has once again betrayed the British people by selling off our health information.

 

Copies of the 'NHS COVID data deals' contracts between the UK government and big tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft - to whom personal health data of millions of NHS users has been transferred - can be found on the following link amidst the article below. Dominic Cummings is involved of course.

 

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/under-pressure-uk-government-releases-nhs-covid-data-deals-big-tech/

Under pressure, UK government releases NHS COVID data deals with big tech

Hours before facing court proceedings from openDemocracy over its massive NHS COVID-19 data deal with private tech firms, the UK government has caved to pressure and released all the contracts governing its deals with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and controversial AI firms Faculty and Palantir.

 

The contracts, released to openDemocracy and tech justice firm Foxglove today, reveal details of what has been described as an ‘unprecedented’ transfer of personal health information of millions of NHS users to these private tech firms. 

 

Significantly, the contracts reveal that the Dominic Cummings-linked firm Faculty is being paid more than £1m to provide AI services for the NHS. The documents also show that terms of that deal were changed after initial demands for transparency were made by Foxglove under the Freedom of Information Act. 

 

The contracts show that companies involved in the NHS datastore project, including Faculty and Palantir, were originally granted intellectual property rights (including the creation of databases), and were allowed to train their models and profit off their unprecedented access to NHS data. 

 

Government lawyers have now claimed that a subsequent (undisclosed) amendment to the contract with Faculty has cured this problem, however they have not released the further contract. openDemocracy and Foxglove are demanding its immediate release. It is not clear if other contracts were altered as well.

 

The disclosures come after openDemocracy and Foxglove sent legal letters demanding transparency over the COVID datastore deal, and just hours before openDemocracy was due to issue proceedings in court. 

 

Over the past few weeks, MPs have asked questions in parliament about the controversial deals and over 13,000 people joined a call for transparency. 

 

Today, openDemocracy is publishing the contracts in full, in order to facilitate expert analysis and support public debate.

 

In March, an NHS blog announced the COVID-19 datastore project – intended, it said, to provide a “single source of truth” about the epidemic, in order to stem its spread. 

 

At the time, the NHS stressed that “essential data governance procedures and established principles of openness and transparency remain at the core of everything we do”; that the data collected “will only be used for COVID-19”; and that “only relevant information will be collected.” 

 

It also said that “once the public health emergency situation has ended, data will either be destroyed or returned in line with the law and the strict contractual agreements that are in place between the NHS and partners”.

 

However concerns were raised about both the secrecy around the deals, and the track record of some of the companies involved. 

 

Palantir, founded by Silicon Valley billionaire and close Trump ally Peter Thiel, is a data-mining firm best known for supporting the CIA’s counterinsurgency and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

 

In 2019 it was criticised for its support for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s brutal regime of deportations. Reporting over its extensive contracts with American police forces revealed problems with access to sensitive data, prices rising over time, and a lack of public trust in their ‘predictive policing’ products. 

 

Similar COVID-data contracts Palantir has won in the US are worth millions of dollars, however the film is reportedly running the new NHS contract for £1, prompting further speculation about how the firm was due to benefit from the deal.

 

Meanwhile Faculty, an artificial intelligence startup, is headed by Mark Warner: brother of Ben Warner who ran the data operation for the Dominic Cummings-led Vote Leave campaign. Faculty is reported to have won eight government contracts worth almost £1.6m in 18 months. They recently won a contract with the Department of Housing to mine and analyse data from “social media, utility providers and telecom bills, credit rating agencies.”

 

The government has not disclosed the Data Protection Impact Assessments it carried out over the NHS COVID deals, claiming it will publish these on the NHS website today. openDemocracy and Foxglove, in legal correspondence, have asked the government to specify whether this important legal compliance step was taken before the contracts were awarded – or after. 

 

The disclosures come amid intensifying debate about private companies’ push to profit from the coronavirus crisis. Leaked emails from outsourcing giant Serco, which is running the government’s delayed test-and-trace scheme, show CEO Rupert Soames hoping the crisis would “cement... the position of the private sector companies in the public sector supply chain.” 

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Behind a paywall so here is the content of this article:

 

Digital IDs could end the need for in-bank visits and banish passwords

 

 

Digital IDs could soon banish the need to appear in bank branches to open accounts and put an end to the use of passwords.

 

British biometrics company Onfido has developed a “portable identity” along with Deloitte and US-based Evernym that can dramatically increase the speed at which new customers can sign up and log into accounts.

 

The ID was tested as part of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory sandbox pilot, a State-run initiative that allows companies to test new ideas for the financial services industry in a controlled environment.

 

Onfido’s identities are created by taking a photo of an official Government document and a selfie.

 

The company claims it will have wide-reaching implications and will eventually act as a proof of identity in the same way a passport does currently.

 

“Fifty years ago we went to the moon, and still it’s hard to show this device that it’s me,” Onfido chief executive Husayn Kassai said.

 

“Passwords are a very old text-based protocol with many limitations. It’s easy to cheat and then you have to reset it and when you do you have to identify nine photos with a bus in it.”

The initial trial of the IDs was supervised by the FCA and was conducted on 100 testers who were able to safely sign up for a handful of services including equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs, and fintechs Monese and Kroo.

 

Onfido claims the IDs will eventually be used beyond financial services and will be used for “things like renting a car, self-checking into a hotel, and one day even voting”.

 

The company deliberately tested the IDs in the financial services industry as it was “one of the most-highly regulated sectors” in the UK.

 

Portable IDs will also reduce the onus on companies to hold personal information like usernames and passwords, meaning users will face a lower risk of a data breach.

 

Technology Intelligence newsletter - UK

Following on from the testing, Onfido now intends to develop a production-ready solution for the UK market.

 

Deloitte partner Derek Ryan said the trials have proven the “practical applications” of digital identities.

 

“We believe that the emergence of a portable digital identity provides a unique opportunity to build an open and scalable ecosystem which can help improve customer experience and protection, solve an institution’s onboarding challenges, and also create new and scalable business models.”

 

US research company Gartner has tipped digital identities to surge in prominence over the coming years. It estimated that by 2023, a quarter of all digital providers will operate a “bring your own identity” system. Gartner said the industry will bloat from a $50m industry to a multi-billion dollar industry.

 

In April, Onfido raised $100m in a round that was led by TPG Growth, the company that has backed big tech businesses like Uber and Airbnb.

 

The company is also in discussions with the Government to potentially develop immunity passports to help curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/06/08/digital-ids-could-end-need-in-bank-visits-banish-passwords/

 

Edited by EnigmaticWorld
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On 5/27/2020 at 12:15 PM, EnigmaticWorld said:

Transhumanism is Already Happening - EXPOSED

https://www.bitchute.com/video/DS1kyqWqUXdk/

 

Transhumanism began 10 years ago when everyone started walking around with a phone permanently attached to their hand.  That was Transhumanism 1.0

 

Edit: Sorry. I already posted this earlier.

Edited by motleyhoo
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53 minutes ago, motleyhoo said:

 

Transhumanism began 10 years ago when everyone started walking around with a phone permanently attached to their hand.  That was Transhumanism 1.0

 

Edit: Sorry. I already posted this earlier.

 

Shouldn't even need to be said on a site like this, I'm sure most of us here already know.

 

First it's devices we hold, then wearables, then tattoos, then implants.

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