The Online Harms framework just got a lot darker
Something distressing happened this week in the Commons chamber, and the Prime Minister wasn’t even there.
All posts filed under: UK policy
Recent UK government policies, consultations, and controversies related to digital and tech.
What you need to know about a No Deal Brexit
I didn’t think we’d be here, but here we are. In my capacity as a Policy Fellow at COADEC, the tech policy body for the UK’s tech startups, I have written a plain-English guide for tech and digital businesses to use to prepare for a No Deal Brexit. While the guidance is aimed at startups and scaleups, the advice is applicable to all tech businesses regardless of where they are on their journey.
Tech policy is no place for hero fantasies
When someone says the internet is the "wild west", what he's really saying is that he has a personal fantasy about being the sheriff.
Just how bad is the ICO’s draft age appropriate design code?
The draft Code is a recipe for creating a generation of children who will grow up sheltered, shattered, and shamed, as their outlooks and formative experiences are defined by safety warnings, age gates, and privatised surveillance.
Won’t somebody think of the democracy?
I wrote for PublicTechnology about the Minister for Health exploiting technology fears to run roughshod over consultative democracy and the rule of law.
Named Persons II: Scotland’s next mass civilian database
Last week I was chatting with some rather cracking professional digital rights activists. The conversation included my attempt to get them, from their London/English perspective, to understand the different cultural approach to mass data collection and databases that we live with here in Scotland. All too often, data collection projects which would be seen as violations of privacy, data protection, and the right to private life anywhere else are seen as “unquestionably legitimate and benign” […]
It’s happening: the EU has announced #VATMOSS reforms
Today the European Commission has announced a raft of proposed reforms to the VATMOSS system.
How to make a success of Brexit: the House of Lords talks digital and tech
A Parliamentary hearing into Brexit's impact on the organised digital professions provided valuable lessons for the unorganised web industry to follow.
Labour’s questions on digital and tech for the government on #Brexit
Labour has released 170 questions for the government concerning Brexit and policy. Here are their questions regarding digital and the tech industry.
Video: VATMOSS and the future of web development
I delivered this presentation on 21 May 2016 at J and Beyond in Barcelona, Spain. It covers what VATMOSS is, where it came from, what problems happened before and after implementation, what the EU VAT Action campaign accomplished, and what is changing in future. This was presented for a web development audience. Many thanks to all who attended, and to everyone who came up to me afterwards to share their own experiences. Despite being a […]