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owenboswarva.bsky.social
Owen Boswarva
@owenboswarva.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.1K following 2.8K posts
A mix of stuff: mainly #opendata, #dataprotection, #geospatial, #datapolicy, #ddj, #genAI, #govtech. Links and half-formed thoughts posted for my own amusement. Still on Twitter at @owenboswarva. Sites: www.owenboswarva.com and www.datadaptive.com. He/him.
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owenboswarva.bsky.social
UK House of Commons: @commonsproccom.parliament.uk has launched an inquiry undertaking a detailed review of Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs) committees.parliament.uk/committee/12...

Find written questions and answers questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

#opengov #FOI -relevant
The inquiry will focus on: ● The purpose and value of a WPQ for MPs and their staff, and whether this has changed over time ● The interaction between WPQ and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and any other recent changes that have impacted on the ability of MPs to gain access to the same, or similar, information via other methods ● The limits on the number of WPQ that MPs can submit on any given day, and whether they are comparable with the rules in place in other legislatures ● Whether the internal House of Commons processes and procedures, and those in Government Departments, for processing and dealing with WPQs are working effectively and efficiently
November 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
I really wouldn't read too much into this, Kendall is just vamping. UK Labour will keep playing hot potato with the AI copyright policy conundrum as long as it can www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Consultation launched last year www.gov.uk/government/c...

#genAI #IPlaw #techpolicy
The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has indicated she is sympathetic to artists' demands not to have their copyrighted works scraped by AI companies without payment and said she wanted to "reset" the debate. In remarks that suggest a change in approach from her predecessor, Peter Kyle, who had hoped to require artists to actively opt out of having their work ingested by generative AI systems, she said "people rightly want to get paid for the work that they do" and "we have to find a way that both sectors can grow and thrive in future". The government has been consulting on a new intellectual property framework for AI which, in the case of the most common large language models (LLMs), requires vast amounts of training data to work effectively.
November 24, 2025 at 8:38 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
70+ organisations and experts demand action over failing ICO www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releas...

Letter calls for an inquiry into "collapse in enforcement activity" at UK Information Commissioner's Office www.openrightsgroup.org/app/uploads/...

#Afghandatabreach #dataprotection #lackofgumption
Parliament has given the ICO considerable powers not to politely hope for the best, but to enforce compliance with legally binding orders. As we heard from the public hearing you hosted, the ICO chose not to use these powers to address the Afghan data breach, a decision strenuously defended by the Information Commissioner. Unfortunately, the Afghan data breach is not an isolated incident, but the symptom of deeper structural failures which are emerging in the way the ICO operates. The recent call for views on enforcement procedural guidance "aims to increase transparency" about how the ICO investigates infringements, but does not change or even leave room to question the ICO overall approach to enforcement.
November 24, 2025 at 8:09 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
UK ministers' criminal records can stay secret, rules watchdog www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art... (£)

ICO decision notice ico.org.uk/action-weve-...

#FOI #opengov #dataprotection
In a decision notice, the ICO accepted the Cabinet Office's claim that disclosing the number of ministers who declared convictions could create a "jigsaw" effect through repeated requests identifying individual ministers. It argued that, hypothetically, if one minister resigned after the Cabinet Office had previously disclosed at least one minister had declared a conviction, and a follow-up request then revealed no ministers in post had a conviction, the resigned minister could be exposed.
November 24, 2025 at 7:54 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Navy made legal threats to try and keep nuclear pollution secret www.theferret.scot/navy-try-kee... by @robedwards5.bsky.social via @theferret.scot

#FOI /EIRs #opengov #natsec
The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland was pleased that Hamilton "refused to be intimidated" by the MoD's "aggressive manoeuvres". The public interest had finally been served by disclosure, said campaign director, Carole Ewart. She thought the MoD might have "overlooked" the fact that Scotland's environmental information law is tougher than that south of the border. Details can only be kept secret in Scotland if they "prejudice substantially" national security, but UK law says they can remain hidden if they just "adversely affect" national security. The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament thanked Hamilton for acting "without fear or favour" in the public interest. "The MoD tried to add to their shameful history of nuclear cover-ups by harassing officials with false claims of national security, hoping we'd never know radioactivity was negligently leaked from Coulport," said campaign chair, Lynn Jamieson.
November 23, 2025 at 3:59 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
UK Labour MP tricked by AI-generated content. Don't believe everything you see on social media, kids #genAI #medialiteracy
Screenshot of tweet from UK Labour Jon Trickett MP @jon_trickett: "Read this and then resolve never to allow anyone to let private medical care replace the nhs" Trickett was quote-tweeting another tweet with a context message: "This story about 91-year-old Helen Miller being arrested for felony theft is fictional and never actually occurred. The story, characters, and accompanying images are AI-generated content that has been debunked as completely fabricated."
November 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
The UK company behind Undress​.cc has "voluntarily" applied to be struck off following Online Safety Act enforcement find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/1507...

Ofcom may struggle to collect that £50,000 fine www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy
FIRST GAZETTE NOTICE 15076132 ITAI TECH LTD Publication date in the Gazette: 25/11/2025 The Registrar of Companies gives notice that, unless cause is shown to the contrary, the Company will be struck off the register and dissolved not less than 2 months from the date shown above. Upon the Company's dissolution, all property and rights vested in, or held in trust for, the Company are deemed to be bona vacantia, and will belong to the Crown.
November 22, 2025 at 2:48 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
This is poignant – perhaps Lizbeth should be more confident in her own lyricism but at least her productivity is up
Lizbeth used to write about one novel per year, but now she can do three per year, and her target is five. She told me that she thinks ChatGPT is 'better' than her, saying that the newest version of ChatGPT is 'so much better than I am at prose'. She explained to me that people's idea that ChatGPT will never be better than humans is maybe true in the first instance, but it will become better. When I asked what made her think it was better than her, Lizbeth described that its vocabulary is better than hers, and she has certain prejudices in the words she does and doesn't use, but she feels the system is very open, so it might be 'more lyrical than I am'.
November 21, 2025 at 4:38 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
The report itself is agenda-driven – and fully on the side of the copyright maximalists – but more nuanced than may appear from the Guardian coverage. There's interesting detail on how authors (most of them anonymised) are integrating AI tools into their working processes.

#genAI #IPlaw #techpolicy
He told me that while he won't judge how people are using AI, there should be an element of creativity involved. Creativity, he explained, is something that only us humans have; AI is not creative by itself, but when used by humans in the right way, that can be a creative process. Jason did admit that there is something lost when we use AI to write, but said that this is the case with all new technologies: 'When you're writing it out yourself, there's something […] that we're kind of losing if we let AI do it all for us. I agree. I think there is something lost there, but I think anytime technology comes in and gives us a boost as a society, something is lost. But something is also gained, and what is gained is bigger than what is lost.'
November 21, 2025 at 4:24 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
More than half of UK novelists believe AI will replace their work www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Impact of Generative AI on the Novel www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge... report from @mctd.bsky.social by Dr Clementine Collett

#genAI #IPlaw #techpolicy
The study, conducted for the university's Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, suggests widespread unease about the speed and scale of AI's advance into the literary world. The research surveyed 258 published novelists and 74 industry figures including editors and agents. Just over half (51%) of novelists said that AI is likely to end up entirely replacing their work. Many participants reported that their work had already been used without their permission to train large language models, and more than a third (39%) said their income had fallen as a result of generative AI. A large majority also expected their earnings to decline further.
November 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Transcript of Wednesday's evidence from DSIT bods to Commons SITC's inquiry on the 'digital centre of Government' committees.parliament.uk/event/25600/...

Mostly about #digitalID plus tech budgets, procurement (Samantha Niblett MP maligning Microsoft), cybersecurity, etc.

#govtech #techpolicy
Q342 Chair: You have said "sovereign" a number of times. Is sovereign capability something that is built here, using British infrastructure—British-owned data centres, British-owned networking—or is it something that is built here using infrastructure owned by others in the UK? Ian Murray: When I asked the question about sovereignty in the tech area, the first part that came back to me was: "It depends how you define what sovereignty is." Chair: Yes, and that’s why I am asking you.
November 21, 2025 at 3:10 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
UK tech secretary Liz Kendall seems to be pushing for legislation restricting chatbot services, beyond current scope of the Online Safety Act www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

OSA only applies to chatbots if they include user-to-user engagement or live search

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Kendall said she was now "really worried about AI chatbots" and "the impact they're having on children and young people". The dangers have been highlighted by US lawsuits involving teenagers who took their own lives after becoming highly engaged with ChatGPT and Character.AI chatbots, which they treated as confidants and advisers. "If chatbots aren't included or properly covered by the legislation, and we're really working through that now, then they will have to be," Kendall said. "People have got to feel their kids are safe."
November 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
I don't normally bother with Andrew Orlowski's stuff any more – he's reliably wrong and not in an interesting way – but this piece is especially stupid:

Defend British sovereignty, defend the Online Safety Act thecritic.co.uk/defend-briti...

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy
If American internet companies withdraw from Britain, would we be poorer? Hardly. In several examples superior UK and European services in search and mapping were muscled out by competitive practices, such as bundling, subsequently found to be illegal. Being boycotted by Wikipedia would hardly be the end of the world, and allow a "Britipedia" without the Californian wokeness.
November 21, 2025 at 1:27 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Addressing database rights: Royal Mail successfully protects rights in its Postcode Address File www.twobirds.com/en/insights/... analysis of last month's Codeberry decision in the High Court (England and Wales) by Quinn Liang at Bird & Bird

#IPlaw #datapolicy not - #opendata not - #openaddresses
Tricks, traps, and evidence of infringement: Mr Smith argued that the GetAddress database was created not from the PAF but from a list of 13 publicly available sources such as The Ordnance Survey Code-Point Open dataset, an NHS postcode directory, addresses of social housing, and HM Land Registry Price Paid Data. Cunningly, both the PAF and the GBR Databases had been seeded with dummy addresses, decoys purposefully introduced to expose copying – known as a 'Mountweazel' after a famous encyclopaedia entry designed to do just that. Evidence presented at the trial demonstrated a high correlation between the PAF data and GetAddress data (around 78%), similar uses of abbreviations, and in particular two forms of mountweazel: the presence of 'seed' addresses (postcodes that do not exist originally planted by RMG in their PAF data) and over 5,000 'sleepers' (errors in addresses purposefully introduced by the creator of the GBR Database once he became suspicious that GetAddress was using information from the GBR Database) in the GetAddress database.
November 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
More #openaddresses:

Camden Council in London has released its Council Tax address list as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad...

Thanks @camdencouncil.bsky.social!

I've geocoded the address locations as usual

#FOI #localgov #UKhousing #proptech #opendata
Screenshot of sample of Camden Council's Council Tax address data, visualised in Google Earth
November 21, 2025 at 8:48 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Microsoft has 'ripped off the NHS', says MP amid call for contracts with British firms www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Valid concerns but some of the people quoted in this article sound as if they just this minute discovered public sector tech procurement. I will wait for the transcript
Niblett, who worked in the data and technology sector before being elected to parliament in 2024, did not provide further evidence, but when the committee chair, Chi Onwurah, voiced surprise at the claim, she said: "Well, it has."
November 20, 2025 at 6:52 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Job – Senior Data Engineer in the Open Data team at the UK's Parliamentary Digital Service housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

PDS's tech-led approach to #opendata has produced rather underwhelming results in the past, but perhaps you can help
The Open Data team, part of the Data & Search, is responsible for defining and delivering Parliament's open data strategy, as well as managing open data products and services. Our core service is the Open Data Platform. The team is now beginning development of a new Open Data Platform for parliamentary procedure data, which will replace existing platforms and the data integration and publishing services that support them. We are seeking an experienced Data Engineer who will play a central role in building and supporting the new platform. The role will focus on developing the ETL data pipeline framework to integrate upstream master data from parliamentary business systems, as well as engineering new data services, including APIs and web-client applications.
November 19, 2025 at 8:45 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Ofcom has received a short extension to answer the US complaint filed by 4chan/KF re enforcement of Online Safety Act www.courtlistener.com/docket/71209...

Ofcom declares 'sovereign immunity' in free speech battle with US website www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy
In a notice filed to a federal court in Washington, its first response to the lawsuit, the regulator said: "Ofcom is a UK public regulatory authority and has substantial grounds for seeking dismissal of this lawsuit based on sovereign immunity." The US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shields foreign governments from lawsuits in the US. 4chan's lawsuit argues that Ofcom operates as a "commercial enterprise" and thus should not benefit from sovereign immunity.
November 19, 2025 at 7:45 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Oops: MoD blunder reveals secret details of bomb project www.theferret.scot/mod-details-... from @theferret.scot

#FOI #redaction #armstrade
The Ministry of Defence has apologised after it accidentally leaked secret documents to The Ferret revealing it was considering Grangemouth and other sites across the UK for new arms factories. Twelve potential locations for making explosives were mistakenly identified in emails released to us under freedom of information (FoI) law. Blacked out text which was meant to remain hidden could be uncovered simply by copying and pasting it into another document. Sites under consideration include parts of the Grangemouth industrial complex, the Finnart oil terminal on Loch Long, and locations in Cumbria, Teesside, Northumberland, Southampton and Wales.
November 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Fun fact: Bristol City Council was the first UK local authority to implement Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs), way back in 1994. UPRN 1 represents the location of Bristol's City Hall.

#geospatial #opendata #openaddresses
Photo from 2006: Bristol Council House. View from one of the ramps leading upto the main entrance. Attribution: Linda Bailey / Bristol Council House / CC BY-SA 2.0
November 18, 2025 at 9:18 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
#FOI response: UK regulator Ofcom does not currently hold a list of websites and/or online services that have chosen to shut down or geoblock the UK related to compliance with the Online Safety Act (OSA) www.owenboswarva.com/FOI/FOI_Ofco...

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy
We can confirm that we do not currently hold a list of websites and/or online services that have chosen to shut down or geoblock the UK related to compliance with the Online Safety Act (OSA). However, as part of our enforcement work, and as explained on this page: Ofcom issues update on Online Safety Act investigations, we are aware of providers of services that have taken steps to prevent people in the UK from accessing their sites – such as by ‘geoblocking’ access from UK IP addresses – instead of implementing the safety measures under our codes. Examples of the services that took this approach include Krakenfiles, Nippydrive, Nippyshare and Nippyspace. Additionally, in July 2025, an online suicide forum implemented a block to restrict users with UK IP addresses from accessing the service, however as reported in the investigation update on 7 November 2025, we now have reason to believe, from evidence provided to us by Samaritans on 4 November 2025, that the service is available to UK users. We are therefore now progressing our investigation as a priority. Our enforcement bulletin will have further information.
November 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Another UK address dataset unlocked:

Bristol City Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad...

Thanks Bristol City Council!

I've geocoded the data for mapping, analysis, whatevs

#FOI #localgov #UKhousing #proptech #opendata #openaddresses
Screenshot of sample of Bristol City Council's Council Tax address data, visualised in Google Earth
November 17, 2025 at 8:07 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Paul McCartney joins music industry protest against AI with silent track www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

I know what you're thinking, but the "room tone" is different so it's absolutely not a blatant rip-off of John Cage

#genAI #IPlaw #AIlaw #techpolicy
At two minutes 45 seconds it's about the same length as With a Little Help From My Friends. But Paul McCartney's first new recording in five years lacks the sing-along tune and jaunty guitar chops because there's barely anything there. The former Beatle, arguably Britain's greatest living songwriter, is releasing a track of an almost completely silent recording studio as part of a music industry protest against copyright theft by artificial intelligence companies. In place of catchy melodies and evocative lyrics there is only quiet hiss and the odd clatter. It suggests that if AI companies unfairly exploit musicians' intellectual property to train their generative AI models, the creative ecosystem will be wrecked and original music silenced.
November 17, 2025 at 7:16 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
£5 million Ordnance Survey contract awarded to 1Spatial:

National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) Data Transformation and Ingestion Service www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/07432...

Follows from previous; NUAR has been developed on 1Spatial's platform

#govtech #geospatial not- #opendata
OS is appointing an organisation "the Supplier" to deliver the Data Transformation and Ingestion (DT&I) Service component of the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) Data Lifecycle. The NUAR Programme is a Government Digital Service (GDS) initiative to build a digital map of underground pipes and cables that will revolutionise the way the different sectors of the economy install, maintain, operate, and repair Great Britain's buried infrastructure. Once operational, NUAR is envisaged to deliver £490 million per year of economic growth through increased efficiency, reduced asset strikes (when underground pipes and cables are accidentally damaged) and reduced disruptions for the public and businesses.
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Fuel Finder branded "a monumental waste of taxpayers' money" at APEA Live forecourttrader.co.uk/latest-news/...

APEA is a UK petroleum lobby, so they would say that. But yeah, it's doubtful this scheme will move the dial for consumers.

#govtech #energypolicy #fuelprices #opendata (or is it)
But the owner of motoring app PetrolPrices said at the event that even if operators are ready by the February deadline, publishers of the data have not been provided with what they need to be able to share that information, less than 12 weeks away from launch. "The scheme might be live then, and that's optimistic, so the retailers might be compliant, but the publishers of the data might not be ready to actually present it to anyone because there is a disconnect there," warned Clare Lafferty, sales director of myAutomate, responsible for the PetrolPrices app. "For anyone who has been close to this, it is evident that VE3 does not know enough about the industry," Lafferty warned.
November 16, 2025 at 3:32 PM