For Whom the Algorithm Tolls by Andrew Wastling

Algorithm:

/ˈalɡərɪð(ə)m/ noun plural noun: algorithms

a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. 'a basic algorithm for division'

The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed repeated and numerous concerns that : Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in our lives, in private and public spheres, in ways large and small. Machine learning tools help determine the ads you see on Facebook and routes you take to get to work. They might also be making decisions about your health care and immigration status.

Government agencies at the local and federal level are exploring, and in many cases already using, automated tools to allocate resources and monitor people. This raises significant civil rights and civil liberties concerns. (1).

Recent scandals from Cambridge Analytica to the role of Facebook in inciting real-world violence in Myanmar, many experts see the internet as a civic space that requires better public hygiene. Chinese CCP state sanctioned plans to create their own Civic Space in the form of its own clearly delineated and state sanitised internet mean that the next Tiananmen Square Massacre will result not in a continuous debate of the number actually killed but no debate at all since nobody ( outside of the People's Republic of China ) will know it has even happened . The eternal philosophical question over the sound of one hand clapping or if a tree falls in a forest unobserved or witnessed whether it actually falls at all if there is no one present to hear it will reach a whole new dizzying existential and intellectual level

.

The undoubted ability of the internet to assist in the organisation of opposition or act as a conduit for populare dissent will not have been missed by the authorities. Equally the targeting and brutalisation of citizens journalists by riot police at the recent Bristol disorders shows how paranoid our elites actually are about losing control of their stage managed mainstream media coverage of events being challenged by an alternative counter narrative from the perspective of the largely peaceful protestors

If the action of out of control police officers is captured on film ( or in actuality on mobile smart phones ) too often the illusion of policing by consent might be irrevocably shattered resulting in popular and irresistibles calls from terrified citizens to have them returned to barracks and re-trained ? It is no accident after all that after the huge number of injuries, blindings and eye loss , generated by tear-gas canisters fired at the massed ranks of 'Gilets jaunes' protesters by gendarmes were captured on hand held filming devices that the Macron regime sought to make the filming of his trigger-and -truncheon happy riot cops illegal by citizens of the riot ravaged Republic.

Insidious & sinister rise of Digital Surveillance

The recent Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights into the digital welfare state succinctly summarises the serious concerns that algorithmic decision making raises. These include:

difficulties in digital access for vulnerable persons most affected by these regimes, both in terms of access to the necessary technology and digital literacy;

the secrecy often surrounding how decisions are reached;

the tendency of risk-scoring and other algorithmic systems to exacerbate existing inequalities and discrimination;

the inflexible robotic application of rules which preclude consideration of relevant extenuating circumstances and removes human interaction and compassion from the picture.

Closer to home Big Brother Watch have just launched a new investigation called Welfare Data Watch into the one in three councils who use algorithms to make welfare decisions . A process which they claim will impact on : 'anyone who's life is touched by the welfare state , whether that is in social care , benefits or housing, may now be impacted by secretive data profiling , predictive analytics , and algorithm decisions. Algorithms , Artificial intelligence , and vast stores of data are being used to profile and monitor vast swathes of the population, A number that has only increased during the pandemic'.

The key areas Big Brother Watch will be investigating are:

(1). Risk scoring ( known as Rick Based Verification ) of Housing Benefit , Council Tax Support and Universal Credit

(2). Predictive analytics in children's care, adult vulnerability and homelessness

(3). Data analysis in social housing , including tools that claim to predict who will fall short on their rent

(4). Surveillance in adult social care , from fridge door sensors to fridge doors replacing in person care

More information about the new campaign and a link to a template letter for councils can be found at https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/welfare-data-watch/

Whilst the text to the campaign letter to submit a Subject Access Request to councils can be read below:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to submit a Subject Access Request for information held on me by the council.

I am solely requesting data related to my benefit or welfare payments by the council.

Please furnish me with:

- The data, and sources for this, used in assessing my claim for housing benefit and council tax support.

- Details on how this data was processed, including details of any automated or algorithmic process used to aid in decision making.

- The data used in risk assessing my claim [risk based verification], details of how it was processed and any data created in the process

- this should include any data not about me as an individual but still used in the system, such as OAC classifications, postcode level data and similar

- The risk score and category, including any descriptors, assigned to me by any computer system.

Please also explain any other profiling, algorithm or automated aid to decision making applied to me or my data.

Best Wishes

APPENDIX:

(1). WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MAKE US LESS FREE? Experts consider how the growing use of AI will impact civil liberties : American Civil Liberties Union

https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/will-artificial-intelligence-make-us-less-free

**************************************************

First person in UK to be prosecuted under Coronavirus Act, has conviction quashed!

Marie Dinou - First Person in UK to be prosecuted under Coronavirus Act

A 41-year-old woman from York, who is the first person in Britain to be prosecuted under the Coronavirus Act 2020, has had her conviction quashed after it was found by legal experts that the British Transport Police (BTP), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and North Tyneside magistrates court, had bungled the case because she had been found guilty, using the wrong legislation.

Marie Dinou, from York, was arrested by BTP last Saturday after being found "loitering between platforms" at Newcastle Central Station and charged with failing to comply with the requirements of the Coronavirus Act 2020. She was the first person in Britain to be prosecuted for allegedly breaching Britain's coronavirus lockdown. On Monday, at North Tyneside magistrates' court, she was fined £800 after she was found guilty of "failing to provide identity or reasons for travel to police, and failing to comply with requirements under the Coronavirus Act."

According to the charge sheet, Ms Dinou, was prosecuted under Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. This clause is intended to force people to self-isolate or be tested for coronavirus, if they're suspected to have the virus and are endangering the public by being out of the house. But the prosecution began to unravel when BTP later confirmed that they didn't believe Ms Dinou was ill at the time of her arrest, nor did they ask her to self-isolate, or to be screened.

Legal experts, including Kirsty Brimelow QC, Chairwoman of the Bar Human Rights Committee, quickly established that the case had been bungled by BTP, the CPS, and the magistrates court, because Ms Dinou had been found guilty using the wrong legislation. Her conviction was then quashed and BTP later apologised. Ms Brimelow told 'The Times':

"Powers under the Coronavirus Act do not relate to a direction to provide identity or reason for a journey. So it seems that she (Ms Dinou), has been prosecuted and convicted for an offence which does not exist under this act."

Critics have warned that Ms Dinou's case demonstrates how the police may try to treat anyone out during the lockdown as suspect, who are 'potentially infectious', to carry out arrests. Silkie Carlow, of 'Big Brother Watch', has accused police forces of going to far. He said:

"The Coronavirus Act gives the police huge powers to police, to arbitrarily fine, detain and punish, anyone in this country. The new law defines 'potentially infectious persons so loosely, as to be meaningless and capture the entire British public...These emergency powers are the most draconian ever seen in peacetime Britain...These breath-taking powers can even be used to detain and isolate our children."

Police officers now have the powers to fine parents £60 for failing to stop a child going out. 

The failed prosecution of Ms Dinou, is yet another blow for the police, who have been accused of being over-zealous and desirous of nudging the UK towards a police state. The 'National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), have issued guidance which states that under the act, police officers have no powers to 'stop and account' or force someone to explain themselves. The guidance spells out that officers can remove a youngster from the streets and anyone with them if they refuse to go home. It also says that checks on every vehicle are 'disproportionate' and the public should not be punished for travelling a reasonable distance to exercise.

Despite the NPCC urging officers "to make sensible decisions and use enforcement as a last resort", police forces in areas such as North Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall, have put road blocks into place or deployed high visibility patrols, to quiz motorists about their plans. Derbyshire Police, were also heavily criticised for using drones to spy on fell walkers in the Peak District. 

Yesterday, the 'Independent' reported that police in the Isle of Man, had taken into custody a person "for failing to adhere to the new legislation requiring him to self-isolate." It is believed that the person arrested, had recently returned to the Isle of Man, following a trip to Spain.