Sam
@smithsam.bsky.social
Believes in better data with informed privacy for all. Day job @medconfidential amongst other things. he/him http://is.gd/samblog 🧘♂️ #FILDI
Cambridge
Cambridge
Reposted by Sam
Will be published at midnight - I hope of interest
November 19, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Will be published at midnight - I hope of interest
Reposted by Sam
Control of your own devices is temporary, but surveillance is forever.
Google stopped letting owners of early Nest themostats remotely control their devices last month. But it's still remotely collecting extensive surveillance data from them: https://www.theverge.com/news/820600/google-nest-learning-thermostat-downgraded-data-collection #privacy
Google is collecting troves of data from downgraded Nest thermostats
The thermostats may no longer connect to Google’s app, but they still transmit your data.
www.theverge.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Control of your own devices is temporary, but surveillance is forever.
Reposted by Sam
I presented the Consequence Check tool to some digital folks in govt this week. It's a methodology for rapidly QAing tech products against their social impacts, not just their tech specification, designed to help surface trade offs www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11... Someone asked a very good Q
Introducing the Careful Consequence Check — Careful Industries
A step-by-step guide to using the Careful Consequence Check canvas.
www.careful.industries
November 15, 2025 at 12:38 PM
I presented the Consequence Check tool to some digital folks in govt this week. It's a methodology for rapidly QAing tech products against their social impacts, not just their tech specification, designed to help surface trade offs www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11... Someone asked a very good Q
Reposted by Sam
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Reposted by Sam
The upcoming ID Cards consultation www.no2id.uk/2025/upcomin...
The upcoming ID Cards Consultation
In the announcement of ‘digital ID cards’ that they claimed would prevent illegal migration, the Government also announced a consultation to cover a range of other topics, including the age range a…
www.no2id.uk
November 4, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The upcoming ID Cards consultation www.no2id.uk/2025/upcomin...
Reposted by Sam
On a typical day, 3% of people who complete Wordle get it in one guess. Which means around one person in 30 completes Wordle on incognito mode, then goes back in a second time and gets it “in one”.
There’s something oddly fascinating about this.
There’s something oddly fascinating about this.
October 31, 2025 at 9:45 AM
On a typical day, 3% of people who complete Wordle get it in one guess. Which means around one person in 30 completes Wordle on incognito mode, then goes back in a second time and gets it “in one”.
There’s something oddly fascinating about this.
There’s something oddly fascinating about this.
Reposted by Sam
Owen is right to highlight this. As taxpayers, we already paid. All this will do is introduce higher prices to all consumers and businesses.
This GOTT guidance is Treasury-brained and low-key hostile to #opendata – it starts from the premise that organisations in the UK public sector should look to commercially exploit "their" knowledge assets, with no real expectation that they should prioritise the wider public interest.
October 30, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Owen is right to highlight this. As taxpayers, we already paid. All this will do is introduce higher prices to all consumers and businesses.
Reposted by Sam
I've just been reminded about an event we ran in October 2010 called Beyond Blogging at @wellcometrust.bsky.social
The list of speakers is quite wonderful.
@jackthurston.bsky.social @jenitennison.com @paulclarke.com @richardpope.org @smithsam.bsky.social @lesteph.com Evan Harris, Jonathan Raper
The list of speakers is quite wonderful.
@jackthurston.bsky.social @jenitennison.com @paulclarke.com @richardpope.org @smithsam.bsky.social @lesteph.com Evan Harris, Jonathan Raper
October 30, 2025 at 10:14 AM
I've just been reminded about an event we ran in October 2010 called Beyond Blogging at @wellcometrust.bsky.social
The list of speakers is quite wonderful.
@jackthurston.bsky.social @jenitennison.com @paulclarke.com @richardpope.org @smithsam.bsky.social @lesteph.com Evan Harris, Jonathan Raper
The list of speakers is quite wonderful.
@jackthurston.bsky.social @jenitennison.com @paulclarke.com @richardpope.org @smithsam.bsky.social @lesteph.com Evan Harris, Jonathan Raper
Reposted by Sam
Today in the Database State www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
UK woman who booked Oslo flight but did not fly loses child benefit ‘because she emigrated’
Exclusive: HMRC told Lisa Morris-Almond there was no record of her return to UK, but she did not take the trip
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Today in the Database State www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Sam
To be clear about this, this is a very very very bad idea.
New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo
“I’m an American citizen so leave me alone”
“Alright, we just got to verify that”
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
“I’m an American citizen so leave me alone”
“Alright, we just got to verify that”
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship
Videos on social media show officers from ICE and CBP using facial recognition technology on people in the field. One expert described the practice as “pure dystopian creep.”
www.404media.co
October 29, 2025 at 9:14 PM
To be clear about this, this is a very very very bad idea.
Reposted by Sam
The other £50 note lying on the pavement with respect to tax policy is to turn Tell Us Once into a full concierge service covering the utilities, bank accounts and probate, but only for people paying the full rate of IHT.
Increasingly I think the point of a wealth tax is not to raise money but to create space for raising income tax. The lethal thing in politics is when the compliant middle class feels like they have been taken for mugs; if you want to get money out of them, someone else needs to pay more too.
October 29, 2025 at 11:09 AM
The other £50 note lying on the pavement with respect to tax policy is to turn Tell Us Once into a full concierge service covering the utilities, bank accounts and probate, but only for people paying the full rate of IHT.
Who is it who writes the regular complaint about the free childcare requiring admin from parents every 3 months? I can’t find the right term to search for…
October 20, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Who is it who writes the regular complaint about the free childcare requiring admin from parents every 3 months? I can’t find the right term to search for…
Reposted by Sam
Anyway, it just so happens I wrote something about the need for digital social policy the other day www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and... better support for parents and children feels like a great place to start
The digital disconnect: taking digital social policy seriously - Power to Change
In our next essay, Rachel Coldicutt explores the urgent need for a community-centred approach to technology policy in the UK. From WhatsApp-powered communit ...
www.powertochange.org.uk
October 9, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Anyway, it just so happens I wrote something about the need for digital social policy the other day www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and... better support for parents and children feels like a great place to start
Reposted by Sam
Unreal disconnect between the kind of economy the UK thinks it has versus the kind of economy it actually has
See e.g. all the talk of fishing during the Brexit years, the denigration and ongoing destruction of the higher education sector, etc
See e.g. all the talk of fishing during the Brexit years, the denigration and ongoing destruction of the higher education sector, etc
In her lunch with the FT the OnlyFans CEO says her company pays more tax than the entire British fishing industry. Quite a stat.
October 4, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Unreal disconnect between the kind of economy the UK thinks it has versus the kind of economy it actually has
See e.g. all the talk of fishing during the Brexit years, the denigration and ongoing destruction of the higher education sector, etc
See e.g. all the talk of fishing during the Brexit years, the denigration and ongoing destruction of the higher education sector, etc
Reposted by Sam
'The impression is of a regulator telling each audience what it wants to hear by pointing at one end of the see-saw, rather than grappling with the hard edges of the case law in ways that may temper expectations rather than raise them.'
Very good piece on OfS & free speech wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-re...
Very good piece on OfS & free speech wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-re...
OfS rebalances the free speech/harassment see-saw on antisemitism
A probing exchange with OfS director Arif Ahmed exposes the legal and practical tensions at the heart of campus free speech guidance. Jim Dickinson looks at when happens when promises to Jewish studen...
wonkhe.com
October 3, 2025 at 8:03 AM
'The impression is of a regulator telling each audience what it wants to hear by pointing at one end of the see-saw, rather than grappling with the hard edges of the case law in ways that may temper expectations rather than raise them.'
Very good piece on OfS & free speech wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-re...
Very good piece on OfS & free speech wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-re...
Reposted by Sam
On Friday my phone blew up with messages about BritCard.
I don’t think it’s a tech test. It’s a trust test.
2m+ signatures against already. If trust isn’t designed in from day one, BritCard risks repeating the same failures that killed past ID schemes.
My take medium.com/writing-by-i...
I don’t think it’s a tech test. It’s a trust test.
2m+ signatures against already. If trust isn’t designed in from day one, BritCard risks repeating the same failures that killed past ID schemes.
My take medium.com/writing-by-i...
medium.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:32 AM
On Friday my phone blew up with messages about BritCard.
I don’t think it’s a tech test. It’s a trust test.
2m+ signatures against already. If trust isn’t designed in from day one, BritCard risks repeating the same failures that killed past ID schemes.
My take medium.com/writing-by-i...
I don’t think it’s a tech test. It’s a trust test.
2m+ signatures against already. If trust isn’t designed in from day one, BritCard risks repeating the same failures that killed past ID schemes.
My take medium.com/writing-by-i...
Reposted by Sam
GOV.UK One Login is a mess. Alongside reported security issues & missing features like delegation & support for business, it breaks the government’s identity assurance principles: it's impossible to switch easily between different One Login accounts. How did it ever pass a service assessment?
September 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
GOV.UK One Login is a mess. Alongside reported security issues & missing features like delegation & support for business, it breaks the government’s identity assurance principles: it's impossible to switch easily between different One Login accounts. How did it ever pass a service assessment?
Reposted by Sam
this is a broader point but something the extract below touches on is that smartphones have made "not being online" an active choice you have to make every minute of every day, and as it states it *is* a mental tax you have to pay, and I'm not sure we've reckoned with that at all
September 28, 2025 at 8:53 AM
this is a broader point but something the extract below touches on is that smartphones have made "not being online" an active choice you have to make every minute of every day, and as it states it *is* a mental tax you have to pay, and I'm not sure we've reckoned with that at all
Reposted by Sam
History shows that when democracies face crises, strengthening and reinvigorating democratic participation is essential to prevent democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism. This is not that.
Starmer’s desperate rush for digital IDs is a recipe for repression
ID cards won’t reduce migration and will put trans rights at risk. But that’s not the biggest cost of Starmer’s half-baked scheme, says Cat MacLean
goodlawproject.org/starmers-des...
ID cards won’t reduce migration and will put trans rights at risk. But that’s not the biggest cost of Starmer’s half-baked scheme, says Cat MacLean
goodlawproject.org/starmers-des...
Starmer’s desperate rush for digital IDs is a recipe for repression
ID cards won’t reduce migration and will put trans rights at risk. But that’s not the biggest cost of Starmer’s half-baked scheme, says Cat MacLean.
goodlawproject.org
September 27, 2025 at 8:44 AM
History shows that when democracies face crises, strengthening and reinvigorating democratic participation is essential to prevent democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism. This is not that.
Reposted by Sam
tbh, if you've got any material size of investments in the UK and you haven't threatened the government that you will withdraw them unless you're given a subsidy, can you really look your shareholders in the eye and say you did your best?
September 24, 2025 at 10:23 PM
tbh, if you've got any material size of investments in the UK and you haven't threatened the government that you will withdraw them unless you're given a subsidy, can you really look your shareholders in the eye and say you did your best?
Reposted by Sam
Reviewed Nick Clegg’s book. Didn’t think much of it, except for:
“Nadine Dorries, while secretary of state for the department overseeing the internet, ‘once called me in high dudgeon, demanding to know why I hadn’t taken down tweets … I had to explain to her that Twitter was a different company’.”
“Nadine Dorries, while secretary of state for the department overseeing the internet, ‘once called me in high dudgeon, demanding to know why I hadn’t taken down tweets … I had to explain to her that Twitter was a different company’.”
Even now, Nick Clegg offers too little too late
Earlier this year a former staffer of what was then Facebook, now Meta, wrote a gossipy tell-all memoir about her time in the office there. It was a huge hit – especially after the company’s chief glo...
www.spectator.co.uk
September 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reviewed Nick Clegg’s book. Didn’t think much of it, except for:
“Nadine Dorries, while secretary of state for the department overseeing the internet, ‘once called me in high dudgeon, demanding to know why I hadn’t taken down tweets … I had to explain to her that Twitter was a different company’.”
“Nadine Dorries, while secretary of state for the department overseeing the internet, ‘once called me in high dudgeon, demanding to know why I hadn’t taken down tweets … I had to explain to her that Twitter was a different company’.”
Reposted by Sam
From things I've seen recently, I think many people would benefit from reading this. It's short, and it's free.
👉 rdcu.be/dbFbB
👉 rdcu.be/dbFbB
In recognition of us doing fuck all to reduce emissions, let me remind y'all that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is useless unless we decarbonize drastically.
rdcu.be/dbFbB
rdcu.be/dbFbB
Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative
Drastically reduce emissions first, or carbon dioxide removal will be next to useless.
www.nature.com
September 17, 2025 at 12:21 PM
From things I've seen recently, I think many people would benefit from reading this. It's short, and it's free.
👉 rdcu.be/dbFbB
👉 rdcu.be/dbFbB
Reposted by Sam
“Bustling crowds wait for overwhelmingly non-white shop staff to serve up their alcohol, never wondering about who would turn up to scrub Westminster station clean of their urine at the end of the day.” www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...
Tommy Robinson’s march was a drunken, coked-up mess
He claimed the world was watching, but most of London barely noticed - and much of what was on view was appalling
www.thenewworld.co.uk
September 14, 2025 at 9:38 AM
“Bustling crowds wait for overwhelmingly non-white shop staff to serve up their alcohol, never wondering about who would turn up to scrub Westminster station clean of their urine at the end of the day.” www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...
Reposted by Sam
Ah yes if black and brown people throw a party we need to scan their faces.
White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered.
This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.
White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered.
This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.
September 13, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Ah yes if black and brown people throw a party we need to scan their faces.
White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered.
This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.
White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered.
This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.