AI, Data Protection & The ICO

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidelines to help clarify how data protection principles apply to AI projects. The Document The guidance document (now a pdf available online on the ICO website) was produced by an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and is aimed at those…

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Tech Tip – Dictation

If you’d like to give your hands a rest, if you need to quickly capture notes, or even if you’d like to take an easy written record of the information given in a phone call, try using the dictation feature in Windows 10.  Here’s how to use it: Firstly, you’ll need a microphone and a…

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Featured Article – Antitrust and Big-Tech

With U.S. Congress members grilling the bosses of the big tech companies this week with a view to deciding if their companies have become too big and powerful, in this article we take a look at the Antitrust laws and issues. Antitrust Laws In the U.S., home of big tech companies Facebook, Apple, Google and…

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Face Masks Beat Facial Recognition

New research has shown that even the most advanced facial recognition algorithms can only identify as little as 50 per cent of faces when masks are worn. Test Although necessary in the pandemic, mask-wearing appears to be posing a serious challenge to even the most advanced facial recognition systems, meaning that security and policing may…

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Remote Working Means Public Cloud and DaaS Spend Increase

Gartner has forecast continued spending on the public cloud and particularly desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) through 2020, fuelled by remote working during the pandemic. Growth The Gartner market watcher’s global public cloud services market forecast indicates that the move to home working necessitated by the COVID-19 shutdown has boosted spending on the public cloud and that it…

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Free Delivery of Amazon Groceries

Amazon is now taking on the supermarkets and Ocado in the UK with free grocery deliveries from its Amazon Fresh service. Amazon Fresh The Amazon Fresh grocery service enables Amazon Prime customers, firstly in London and parts of the Home Counties, then across the UK by the end of the year, to buy groceries online…

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Tech Tip – Getting Organised Using Microsoft Edge

If you are using Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 here’s a way that you can organise multiple browser tabs that you need to have open for a job or project into a ‘Collection’ that you can easily access later. To make a ‘Collection’ of relevant web pages that you have open in multiple browser tabs:…

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Featured Article – 1,000% More Gold In E-Waste Than Gold-Ore

With 50 million tonnes of electronic waste produced each year and enterprises having policies in place for its disposal, there is still the problem in many countries of too much of it ending up in landfill or being informally disposed of. What Kind of Electronic Waste A 2019 UN report showed that the world produces…

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Test and Trace Breaks GDPR Say Campaigners

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has said that England’s COVID-19 Test and Trace programme is in breach of GDPR. Test and Trace The COVID-19 test and trace system requires people to share personal data such as their name and date of birth, their address, places they’ve recently visited and the personal details of those they…

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Celebrity Twitter Accounts Hacked For Bitcoin

Twitter accounts of celebrities including Barack Obama and Bill Gates were hacked and used to operate a scam, asking people to donate bitcoin. What Happened? Hackers used the tools that were normally only available to Twitter staff to attempt to hack into the accounts of 130 high profile people including the former U.S. president.  It…

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