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<h1 id="reader-title" class="">ORG policy update/2018-w07</h1>
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<div id="mw-content-text" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" lang="en"><p class="">This is ORG's Policy Update for the week beginning 12/02/2018.
</p><p class="">If you are reading this online, you can also subscribe to the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lists.openrightsgroup.org/listinfo/parliamentary.monitor">email version or unsubscribe</a>.
</p>
<h2 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="ORG.E2.80.99s_work">ORG’s work</span></h2>
<ul class=""><li class="">ORG are fundraising to recruit more permanent members of our legal team. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/join-org-and-help-build-our-legal-team">Join ORG today to help out!</a></li>
<li class="">ORG is running a petition against the Government’s misguided
proposals threatening fines for internet companies who do not rapidly
censor extremist material shared on their platforms. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://action.openrightsgroup.org/censorship-and-control-are-not-answer-extremism">Sign the petition here!</a></li>
<li class="">ORG have launched an open <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://action.openrightsgroup.org/new-rights-need-new-services-submit-your-ideas-monday-february-12th">call for ideas</a> to develop a tool for consumers to enjoy their stronger rights under GDPR. This is a joint project with <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://projectsbyif.com">Projects by IF</a>, funded through a grant from the Information Commissioner Office.</li></ul><p class="">Planned local group events:
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<ul class=""><li class="">Join ORG staff Mike Morel and Alex Haydock at ORG London on <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.meetup.com/ORG-London/events/247510359/">19 February</a> for a discussion on the modern threats to free speech online.</li>
<li class="">Hear ORG's Legal Director Myles Jackman update ORG Norwich about ORG's current and future legal activities on <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.meetup.com/ORG-Norwich/events/247426815/">19 February</a></li></ul>
<h2 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Official_meetings">Official meetings</span></h2>
<ul class=""><li class="">Mike Morel gave a presentation to ORG Oxford on free speech and extremism.</li>
<li class="">Jim Killock gave an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live about the
Government's proposed algorithm for detecting terrorist propaganda
videos.</li>
<li class="">Slavka Bielikova gave a presentation during the Westminster Insight Forum event on copyright and rights management.</li>
<li class="">Matthew Rice met with Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow and
co-convener of the Scottish Green Party, to discuss electronic voting
trials in Scotland.</li>
<li class="">Jim Killock attended a seminar held by The Electoral Commission on
proposed changes to Welsh voting, including online voting, with minister
Alun Davies speaking.</li>
<li class="">Jim Killock met with <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/steapp/people/veale">Michael Veale</a> to discuss his research.</li></ul>
<h2 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="UK_Parliament">UK Parliament</span></h2><p class="">Parliament has been <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/business-faq-page/recess-dates/">in recess</a> this week, and will reopen on Tuesday 20 February.
</p>
<h3 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Data_Protection_Bill">Data Protection Bill</span></h3><p class="">ORG are still tracking the progress of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/dataprotection.html">Data Protection Bill</a>,
which had its first reading in the House of Commons at the end of
January, and is awaiting a second Commons reading before Committee Stage
can begin. While no date has yet been announced for the Second Reading,
ORG are expecting this to be during the second week after the
Parliamentary recess is over.
</p><p class="">The Bill still contains the controversial "immigration
exemption", which ORG have campaigned against during earlier stages. For
more information, see <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ORG_policy_update/2018-w03#Data_Protection_Bill_Progresses_to_House_of_Commons">previous policy updates</a>.
</p><p class="">ORG are planning future outreach campaigns targeting MPs and
MEPs, intended to highlight our concerns with some of the provisions of
the Bill.
</p>
<h2 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Other_national_developments">Other national developments</span></h2>
<h3 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Amber_Rudd_announces_Government_tool_to_identify_extremist_material">Amber Rudd announces Government tool to identify extremist material</span></h3><p class="">This week, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced that the Government
has developed an algorithmic tool capable of identifying terrorist
propaganda content with a high success rate. The Home Office claims that
the tool can recognise 94% of IS propaganda with 99.99% accuracy.
According to Engadget, the Home Office intend to make the tool available
for all internet platforms, and they are particularly interested in
"smaller sites such as Vimeo and pCloud, which have seen an increase in
IS propaganda".
</p><p class="">Such tools can have a role to play in identifying unwanted
material, but there are some important caveats to what these tools are
doing, with implications about how they are used, particularly around
accountability.
</p><p class="">Additionally, ORG has concerns that the real world impact of all
this activity may not be as great as is being claimed. Greater
transparency around what material is being removed is necessary to
establish whether takedowns are proportional, and to ensure
accountability.
</p><p class="">The results of the Government's’ campaign to remove extremist
material may be to push them towards more private or censor-proof
platforms, which may impact the ability of the authorities to surveil
criminals and to remove material in the future.
</p><p class="">The ORG Blog has a <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2018/even-extremist-takedowns-require-accountability">post that raises a number of concerns and questions</a> about this system.
</p>
<h3 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="West_Yorkshire_police_begin_trialing_mobile_fingerprint_technology">West Yorkshire police begin trialing mobile fingerprint technology</span></h3><p class="">This week, the Government <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-trial-new-home-office-mobile-fingerprint-technology">confirmed</a>
that police in West Yorkshire would begin trialing technology that
allowed frontline officers to use a smartphone app in conjunction with a
handheld fingerprint scanner to connect with identity databases (IDENT1
and IABS) via the Biometric Services Gateway.
</p><p class="">According to the Government:
</p>
<blockquote class="">"As well as identifying a person of interest who may be
withholding their name, the technology enables officers to rapidly
identify someone experiencing a medical emergency and make contact with
their next of kin.
Early examples of the new system in action include a firearms unit, who
detained a driver after a short pursuit and were able to identify him as
a disqualified driver, despite him giving false details."</blockquote><p class="">Liberty raised concerns about the technology in <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news/blog/why-its-not-okay-police-quietly-roll-out-spot-fingerprint-scanning">a blog post on their site</a>, noting:
</p>
<blockquote class="">"This scheme is part of a pattern of the police using
radical privacy-invading technology without proper public consultation
or meaningful parliamentary oversight.
Much like the facial recognition technology that is increasingly being
deployed by police forces, it is being presented to us after the event
and with little fanfare and is being made available to more and more
officers across the country."</blockquote>
<h3 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Government_websites_found_delivering_cryptocurrency_mining_malware_to_users">Government websites found delivering cryptocurrency mining malware to users</span></h3><p class="">This week, a number of Government websites were found to be
delivering a malicious cryptocurrency mining script to users. This was
along with thousands of other sites which also make use of the
third-party <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/browsealoud/">Browsealoud</a>
tool for users with accesibility needs. The Browsealoud plugin had been
compromised to deliver the mining script to users of any site which
made use of the screen reading tool, even if the users in question were
not actively using the screen reading feature.
</p><p class="">The cryptocurrency mining malware involved a javascript tool from
CoinHive, which allows website owners to use the processing resources
of users that visit their webpages to mine the Monero cryptocurrency. In
this case, however, the tool had been illegally served to users of
Government sites through the compromise of the Browsealoud tool.
</p><p class="">Simple technical mitigations such as <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scotthelme.co.uk/content-security-policy-an-introduction/">Content Security Policy</a> and <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scotthelme.co.uk/subresource-integrity/">Subresource Integrity</a>
have existed for many years, and can be used by website owners to
effectively protect their users from being put at risk if any
third-party tools on the site, like Browsealoud, are compromised.
</p><p class="">This breach of Government services comes one week after the publication of the National Cyber Security Centre's <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/active-cyber-defence-one-year">Active Cyber Defence</a> report, which highlighted the success of their "Web Check" programme for securing Government websites.
</p>
<h2 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="ORG_media_coverage">ORG media coverage</span></h2><p class=""><i class="">See <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ORG_Press_Coverage" title="ORG Press Coverage" class="">ORG Press Coverage</a> for full details.</i>
</p>
<dl class=""><dt class="">2018-02-13-Engadget-<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/13/uk-government-ai-extremist-videos/">UK government has its own AI for detecting extremist videos</a></dt>
<dd class="">Author: Rachel England</dd>
<dd class="">Summary: Jim Killock quoted in a story about Amber Rudd's claim that
the Government have developed an algorithmic tool to detect terrorist
propaganda videos.</dd>
<dd class="">Topics: <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Internet_censorship" title="Internet censorship" class="">Internet censorship</a></dd>
<dt class="">2018-02-14-The Register-<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/14/home_office_algorithm_take_down_analysis/">Despite the headlines, Rudd's online terror takedown tool is only part of the solution</a></dt>
<dd class="">Author: Rebecca Hill</dd>
<dd class="">Summary: Jim Killock quoted in a story about Amber Rudd's claim that
the Government have developed an algorithmic tool to detect terrorist
propaganda videos.</dd>
<dd class="">Topics: <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Internet_censorship" title="Internet censorship" class="">Internet censorship</a></dd></dl>
<h2 class=""><span class="mw-headline" id="ORG_Contact_Details">ORG Contact Details</span></h2><p class=""><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff">Staff page</a>
</p>
<ul class=""><li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#jim">Jim Killock, Executive Director</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#javier">Javier Ruiz, Policy Director</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#ed">Ed Johnson-Williams, Campaigns</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#lee">Lee Maguire, Tech</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#myles">Myles Jackman, Legal Director</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#alex">Alex Haydock, Legal Intern</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#matthew">Matthew Rice, Scotland Director</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#slavka">Slavka Bielikova, Policy Officer</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#mike">Mike Morel, Campaigner</a></li>
<li class=""> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#caitlin">Caitlin Bishop, Campaigns Communication Officer</a></li></ul>
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