* Posts by Doctor Syntax

32768 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014

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UK cops blasted over 'disproportionate' slurp of years of data from crime victims' phones

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

If - and it's a big if given some recent media reports - the prosecution are doing their job properly it shouldn't be incumbent on the defence to go to that trouble. It should never get to court.

Ideally we would have a forensic science service as an arm of the court who could carry out such examinations as a neutral body. Unfortunately the privatisation of the service was a step in the opposite direction as labs now have to sell services to someone, mostly the police.

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Re: Police in impossible position

"The rules which apply to the ordinary person, which require search warrants, reasonable suspicion, etc must apply, a fortiori, to a victim."

Yes. But once an accusation is made there are two potential victims. Anyone properly investigating such cases has to at least consider the possibility of a false accusation for the simple reason that it happens.

It's a long time since I was involved in such investigations so it's possible that things have changed but my experience was that there were a few cases which were self-evidently false and a few that were self-evidently genuine and a lot that were somewhere in between. I for one wouldn't have wanted to be part of a miscarriage of justice either way. I think it's probably one of the thorniest areas of criminal investigation. Every case requires thinking about. I'd certainly hate to be on a jury in such a case but the jury should have the best and fullest evidence before it.

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Re: Stop using that phone

Just stop to think about this a moment.

If someone were to wrongly accuse you of something would you want the police to ensure you were treated fairly? Even if that involved a search of your accuser's phone?

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Re: Stop using that phone

Indeed. In my day police were more sceptical.

On the other hand we also had Kincora House back then and everyone concerned in investigating that thought it must be a one-off, how could it slip under the radar, there must be political protection etc. We now know it wasn't unique and may, in fact, have subsequently given credibility to the apparently incredible.

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"And if the perpetrator has been identified via his DNA, why search the victim's mobile at all?"

There are -or should be - two elements to prove a case. One is to prove an offence and the other to identify the perpetrator. This is an area where false allegations are not unknown. Anyone who has experience of investigating allegations of sexual offences is aware of the need to tread carefully in order to avoid serious miscarriages of justice.

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Re: Police in impossible position

In general you're spot on but in the case of the 12 year old it might have shown grooming by the accused or others and been significant for sentencing or bringing more cases to light. Without knowing the circumstances of the case it's not possible to say it was wrong.

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Re: Stop using that phone

"This is positively Orwellian, where the victim is having to prove that they are innocent."

It's more complex than you think.

My experience in investigating such cases is well out of date - in fact it's almost exactly disjunct with mobile phones. Mores may well have changed but there was always a problem with trusting rape allegations. There were a few fairly obvious attempts to cause trouble: in one case I remember on breaking up with a former boyfriend and in another in an attempt to inconvenience the police after she'd had a telling off.

Where the dubious claims actually name an alleged perpetrator there are now two potential victims. Out of fairness to someone who may have been wrongfully and even maliciously accused the police have to tread a very fine line.

It's Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Tech industry speaks its brains on Brexit-monger's victory

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Re: Joining the Lib Dems

"the next leadership election, but it'll probably be between Steve Baker and Javid, and another Hobson's choice."

It'll probably between the two who most successfully distance themselves from a BoJo government and all its doings.

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"What is the new Prime Minister's view of IR35 reform"

I'm sure Boris will look favourably on freelance journalists. Otherwise why would he give a toss?

Equifax to world+dog: If we give you this $700m, can you pleeeeease stop suing us about that mega-hack thing?

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The data they collect was passed to them by other firms who collected it for various other purposes. By the time Equifax have processed it and turned it into credit scores it must be legally dubious as to whether there's a chain of informed consent.

I don't know if the term chain of informed consent is in use but seems a useful concept rehter like chain of continuity handling court evidence.

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Re: Jail Time?

"Do you folks have any idea what would happen if corporate officers were routinely held legally responsible for their actions?"

Yes. Instead of anyone in the lower ranks proposing improvements to security being told to GFO they'd be being asked anxiously if they were sure there wasn't something else that could be done.

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Re: This is just the US

"Isn't anyone else taking them to the cleaners?"

https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/equifax-ltd/

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"This comprehensive settlement is a positive step for US consumers and Equifax as we move forward from the 2017 cybersecurity incident and focus on our transformation investments in technology and security as a leading data, analytics, and technology company,"

Of course it is. It establishes the price of the industry's raw materials as being quite low.

Google pays out $13m to make Wi-Spy scandal go away: Bung goes to peeps and privacy orgs

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"It also agreed to surrender the data to authorities in the US and Europe for inspection, which went some way towards diffusing the situation."

Diffuse as in spreading it about so that data fetishists in TPTB got their hands on it to trawl through?

Silly money: Before you chuck your chequebook away, triple-check that super-handy digital coin

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Re: I like proper cash

Order drink, take swig and simultaneously offer cash. How does that work for the card only pub?

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Re: Why prepay?

"making the interest on your money that you could be earning"

Interest? I think I remember that.

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Re: ..the biggest of payments problems...

A big plus for polymer banknotes.

Google settles a four-year age-discrimination battle with 227 engineers by dishing out... $11m

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Re: Not even a year's salary

Repeat that practice across the industry and $35k isn't much to live on for the rest of your life.

Microsoft breaks out checkbook, turns Hungarian 'bribe' charge into a mere 'settlement'

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If you try this sort of thing in the UK you get your money back instead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/937232.stm

Pair programming? That's so 2017. Try out this deep-learning AI bot that autocompletes lines of source code for you

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Re: What could possibly go wrong?

"If you type the line of code yourself, you should be thinking about every character."

Somehow the fingers and thoughts don't always coincide.

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'I for one'

Is that the Last One?

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Is it just me or does anyone else see "trained neural network" and read "garbage in, garbage out"?

BT boss warns 16-min walk from current HQ to new London base 'just the tip of the iceberg'

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"The Better Workplace Programme"

Knowing BT that'll be a case of getting rid of the difficult bit in the title.

Marketing biz bares folks' data in the act of asking for their GDPR comms preferences

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"We process your data in line with all relevant laws" looks like weasel wording when they could have simply said "We obey all relevant laws". It's not the first time I've seen this sort of thing.

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"From the very nature that we send teachers (corporate subscribers) a Data Collection and Fair Processing Notice before we begin actively processing their data and then that you resolved at a Preference Centre where they can manage their GDPR preferences, shows that we are an organisation that takes data protection and privacy with the utmost seriousness."

It shows me that they can't write coherent English.

When you play the game of Big Spendy Thrones, nobody wins – your crap chair just goes missing

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Re: Disassembling chairs

"I bet she still thinks she broke that chair..."

And no doubt your colleague also still thinks he broke it...

Literally braking news: Two people hurt as not one but two self-driving space-age buses go awry

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Re: Perfection.

Yes. And once everyone gets over the idea that human drivers and not actually rushing about trying to cause maximum mayhem but are actually doing their best to keep out of accidents we'll realise that that's a very tough call.

TFA says "People get hit by human-driven vehicles all the time, of course.". Actually, in terms of vehicle miles, they get hit vary rarely.

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Re: "We feel confidentW" - that is very AIish

Looking forward to your next post.

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As a new driver I and a mate were out for a trip into Derbyshire when I executed an emergency stop to the surprise of my mate.

I'd seen the sheep balancing on top of the wall and gathering itself ready to jump down so hit the brakes before it took off. It landed unharmed just in front of us.

When I read about autonomous vehicles I often wonder whether one would (a) recognise a sheep, (b) still recognise one balancing on top of a wall and (c) recognise from its stance and minor movements that it was about to jump off. The last is the most difficult as an understanding that arises from having to manage the balance a mammalian body and not just a motor vehicle with its centre of gravity well within its wheelbase.

Apollo 11 @ 50: The long shadow of the flag

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Re: The most expensive dick swinging contest in history

"I think your history timeline is a bit messed up"

For such a conspiracy theory to be invented there's a l east a semantic argument it must have been already established by evidence to be false and the existence of such evidence is clearly no impediment to the theory to be adhered to . If it can be adhered to in such circumstances it can also be invented.

Boris Johnson's promise of full fibre in the UK by 2025 is pie in the sky

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Re: There *might* be a way to move this along

This promise was made to one of the areas of England which has very large areas of very low density housing. There are other parts of the UK where provision of fibre would be equally or even more expensive in time and money but it's one that illustrates the problem very well. The previous attempts at rolling out non-POTS systems stopped well short of such areas. Now BT/OR, who were not even allowed a role back then, are now the whipping boy for not being able to do the job on the instant.

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Re: Perfectly Doable.

"Years ago they should have been forcing new builds to be connected by fibre"

On the basis that you mean BT: they didn't have the option.

They were kept out of what was then called "cable". What then happened was that those who were allowed in only laid as much as they thought would be profitable. In many cases they were over-optimistic. Eventually it became clear that BT would have to be brought in to do the job and are then ritually beaten up at intervals for not having done it when they weren't allowed.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Those in the DUP might.

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Re: Does anyone else ever get the feeling...

No. I've had a similar problem all my life. The difference s that I now have less of it.

However it doesn't engender the least sense of fellow-feeling.

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Re: Obsessed with fibre

"Cars are like water, they fill all available space." You build more roads and you move the bottlenecks.

The reason new roads clog up so quickly is because they're not built until potential demand has long exceeded capacity.

Demand is increased due to concentration of employment in ever-larger cities that require an hinterland of 1000 sq miles or more to house the employees leading to a commuter problem. Mass transit isn't prepared to make the investment that would provide tolerable journey times* so it's the commuters who have to make their own investments in cars to get to work. The necessary matching infrastructure investments in roads is made only grudgingly and, in a massive victim-blaming exercise, commuters are held responsible.

Old rural industries have been failing for all my lifetime. The so-called brownfield sites they occupied are redeveloped for housing so we have a double whammy of less jobs and more people. No wonder there are more commuters and hence more traffic.

*The number of routes to be serviced increases with the area to be serviced. Just lengthening existing routes doesn't work as the access points would spread out.

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Re: Too much Thomas Hardy?

"Maybe Gabriel Oak will become the new Minister for Broadband and Rural Affairs?"

A Gabriel Oak would do better in that role than BoJo in the No 10.

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Re: Something Boris will achieve is.

"the only exception being the 1945 election and creation of the NHS, since then its been public schoolboys and girls trying their damndest on both sides of the politcal divide"

From Wilson to Major the PMs were not public school. It was that ersatz man of the people Blair who brought them back into No 10.

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Re: Something Boris will achieve is.

The DUP don't have a monopoly.

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Re: Something Boris will achieve is.

"She has to be one of, if not THE worst prime minister in living memory."

Soon to be superseded in more ways than one.

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Re: Something Boris will achieve is.

"In both instances she could (and should) have given the flat earthers in the Tory party the kicking they deserve."

The reality was that she couldn't muster a majority in her own party let alone Parliament for any form of EU-related policy. The best she could have done was to have done a proper study on the likely outcome of whatever each of the options was and tried to build a consensus for what looked least damaging to the economy before invoking Article 50. By going headlong for an invocation without any clear view of what was going to happen next she was powerless.

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Re: Won't Broadband be obsolete by then?

"I don't think he meant Broadband"

Were he to still be in power by 2025 ITYF it meant whatever happened.

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Re: Lies versus incompetance

"the Fourth Estate, who resent politicians having all that power and are convinced they could do so much better, if only they could be arsed to get off this bar stool."

There's a certain amount of exchange of bodies between the press and politics so I think we're about to see this put to the test. It could be amusing for those who aren't in danger of beocmng collateral damage.

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Re: BroBo

"it could be added onto their existing remit"

As in totally change it. NICE is in effect a purchasing department for the NHS. It doesn't even have any say in what's sold over the counter.

As others have said, we could simply accept other validation bodies without having any say in them but, hay, we'll have taken back control.

When Harry met celly: NSA hoarder thrown in the clink for 9 years – after taking classified work home for decades

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Re: 22 years...

Does it mean the same as it would in a UK context? Could mean an employee of a bodyshop?

Two countries separated by a common language.

UK.gov drives ever further into Nocluesville, crowdsources how to solve digital identity

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"generating a public-private key pair with long enough keys to resist being cracked takes a big computer"

You can trade size computational power of the computer against time so this aspect of the scheme isn't a problem. But how do you generate the required entropy to generate a secure key pair?

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What happens when you lose the card? Or it fails?

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Re: Do nothing.

If one is of "No Fixed Abode" then any Post Restante that is used should have some responsibility for confirming identity.

And this introduces a bootstrapping prolem.

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Re: Not that difficult...

For a passport, your somebody's birth certificate plus one or both of your somebody's and preferably same person's parents' birth certificates and maybe their marriage certificates plus someone who knows claims to know you.

The requisite certificates can be ordered here: https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp quite legitimately. https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl will help you in your research and there's a worked example in The day of the Jackal.

Identity is a slippery concept. The administrative mind assumes everyone follows the rules. The people whom ID systems most want to defend against are those who often don't.

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Re: Not that difficult...

"Not that it necessarily works perfectly, nothing does witnessing all the fraud out there, but a start."

IOW, fails where it's most needed.

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Re: Le sigh

My son has never been in the military, doesn't drive and, being of mixed ancestry, his Yorkshire half realised that the passport his Irish half was entitled to was cheaper (and potentially more useful in the near future).

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