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owenboswarva.bsky.social
Owen Boswarva
@owenboswarva.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.1K following 2.7K 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
Just teach the warden how to use Excel ffs
November 10, 2025 at 8:54 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Job – Director of Technology at the Open Data Institute @odihq.bsky.social in London theodi.livevacancies.co.uk#/job/details...

#opendata -adjacent
(I mean, I guess. It's still in the name anyway)
Salary: £86k - £111k per annum (full-time salary), plus benefits Closing Date: 24 November 2025 About the Open Data Institute (ODI) The ODI’s mission is to build an open and trustworthy data ecosystem where data works for everyone. Our initiatives are designed to tackle significant challenges by providing sustainable and reliable access to data. As we embark on a series of exciting new strategic projects, we are seeking a driven and innovative Director of Technology to guide us toward our ambitious goals. Role Overview The Director of Technology will be pivotal in executing the ODI's data and technology strategy. You will manage flagship ODI initiatives such as Solid, OpenActive, as well as our work on data standards. You will oversee technical development and product innovation. Reporting to the CEO and being part of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), you will work across departments to ensure the successful delivery of our mission.
November 10, 2025 at 7:45 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
It's unlikely a representative sample of UK adults has experience of CSAM sharing – I mean, one hopes – so really this survey is only reflecting back scaremongering about #e2ee #encryption from the Government and campaign groups like IWF www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/n...

#masssurveillance #techpolicy
● Survey shows 92% of people in the UK are concerned about the sharing of child sexual abuse on end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging services ● Just under nine in ten (88%) adults agree that UK government should require tech companies to use 'upload prevention' method in E2EE environments to detect images and videos of child sexual abuse ● IWF says the safety method is a technically feasible way to detect child sexual abuse in E2EE spaces that preserves privacy and upholds the rights of victims and survivors
November 10, 2025 at 3:21 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Pro tip: you don't have to respond to every novel technology by running around like a headless chicken
November 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
This response from DSIT minister Ian Murray doesn't look right questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

ICO's own guidance says "we ask that you do so within six weeks of receiving your final response or last substantive contact with the public authority." ico.org.uk/make-a-compl...

#FOI
Screenshot of response to UK House of Commons written question UIN 86663, tabled on 30 October 2025: Answered on 7 November 2025 by Ian Murray (Labour, Edinburgh South) Whilst DSIT sponsors the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), government policy for Freedom of Information (FOI) sits with the Cabinet Office. The ICO has not issued specific guidance for applicants on how long to wait after a decision notice before seeking an internal review or making an appeal. Under the FOI Act, internal reviews are not statutory, and authorities set their own timelines. The Code of Practice on FOI issued by the Cabinet Office states that it is usual practice for public authorities to accept a request for an internal review within 40 working days. The ICO advises applicants to complain to the ICO within three months of the final response or last substantive contact with the public authority, or risk ineligibility.
November 9, 2025 at 9:08 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
I've updated my 'Population within a radius' tool so that it calculates resident population using the latest (mid-2024) small area estimates released by ONS this week www.datadaptive.com/pop/ (England and Wales only)

#opendata #datavis
Screenshot of Datadaptive's 'Population within a radius' tool
November 9, 2025 at 5:30 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Yet more #openaddresses for UK housing stock:

Wiltshire Council has released its Council Tax address list for re-use as #opendata under the Open Government Licence www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad...

Thanks @wiltscouncil.bsky.social!

Geocoded in CSV and GeoJson formats

#FOI #localgov #proptech
Screenshot of sample of Wiltshire Council's Council Tax address data, visualised in Google Earth
November 8, 2025 at 10:07 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Google Removed 749 Million Anna's Archive URLs from its Search Results torrentfreak.com/google-remov...

annas-archive.org

#webarchiving #shadowlibraries #openweb
5% of All Google Takedowns, Ever Since Google published its first transparency report in May 2012, rightsholders have flagged 15.1 billion allegedly infringing URLs. That's a staggering number, but the fact that 5% of the total targeted Anna's Archive URLs is remarkable. Penguin Random House and John Wiley & Sons are the most active publishers targeting the site, but they are certainly not alone. According to Google data, more than 1,000 authors or publishers have sent DMCA notices targeting Anna’s Archive domains. Yet, there appears to be no end in sight. Rightsholders are reporting roughly 10 million new URLs per week for the popular piracy library, so there is no shortage of content to report.
November 7, 2025 at 7:24 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
More progress on #openaddresses:

Durham County Council has released its Council Tax address list for re-use as #opendata under the Open Government Licence owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... (UK)

Thanks @durhamcouncil.bsky.social!

I've made a geocoded version ofc

#FOI #localgov #UKhousing #proptech
Screenshot of sample of County Durham's Council Tax address data, visualised in Google Earth
November 7, 2025 at 4:15 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Boring for journos, but this seems to be a reasonable decision – nothing in the description of the data breach indicates it meets the threshold for reporting to the ICO
scotnational.bsky.social The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 3d
NEW: Number 10 has decided not to refer a leak of confidential internal emails discussing the Huntingdon train stabbing to the UK’s data watchdog
No 10 refuses to refer accidental email leak to The National to UK data watchdog
www.thenational.scot
November 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Mid-2024 population estimates by output areas, electoral, health and other geographies, England and Wales www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula... release from ONS

Estimates for constituencies have to be extracted via the Nomis choose-your-own-adventure interface, unfortunately

#opendata #ux
November 7, 2025 at 12:20 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Tory councillors reported to police for sharing 'sexist' deepfake AI video www.joe.co.uk/news/tory-co...

Dickhead behaviour but based on description it's not clear this meets the standard for the offence in s188 of Online Safety Act www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/5...

#deepfakes #genAI #techlaw
The deepfake pictured Millward with enlarged breasts standing alongside her Green Party leadership colleagues, Zack Polanski and Mothin Ali. Councillor Michael Lunn's account shared the video on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) with the caption "Amazing skills from the Green Party 🥳. Nice one Zac. 👍" The post was later retweeted by fellow Councillor Neil Cleaver. Sharing of AI-generated intimate images such as deepfakes without consent became a criminal offence under the Online Safety Act last year.
November 7, 2025 at 11:09 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Trump's FBI is going after archive​.is, looks like:

Archive​.today: FBI Demands Data from Provider Tucows www.heise.de/en/news/Arch...

Subpoena pdflink.to/1e0e0ecd/

#webarchiving #openweb
It is one of the most mysterious and, at the same time, best-known websites on the internet. Archive.today has built up a user base over a period of more than ten years who use the service to access previous snapshots of a web page. So basically like the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive, only largely free of rules and presumably therefore also anonymous. To the chagrin of the media industry, the service is also often used to bypass paywalls. This is also possible because the service does not adhere to common rules and laws and offers no opt-out option.
November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Ofcom update on its investigation into the online suicide forum that we shall not name www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

Still geoblocking UK users though – the verboten site hasn't published any update. Are the Samaritans talking about VPN access?

#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Published: 6 November 2025 Ofcom has today provided an update on our investigation into the provider of an online suicide forum under the UK’s Online Safety Act. On 1 July 2025, the forum implemented a voluntary block to restrict users with UK IP addresses from accessing the service. Ofcom has been actively monitoring these restrictions to check they are maintained consistently and to make sure the service does not promote or encourage ways for UK users to avoid them. 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, and we aim to reach a conclusion as swiftly as we can. We will provide further updates on this investigation as soon as possible.
November 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Credit where it's due: had a response from the Environment Agency for England's reservoirs team today to an #FOI/ EIR request that I submitted yesterday, all done and dusted 👏 #opendata
November 6, 2025 at 6:23 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Britain calls it safety. It is censorship www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202... by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia @tsavkko.com.br on the UK's Online Safety Act

#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #masssurveillance #openweb #techpolicy
The most insidious feature of this legislative trend is how it absolves parents while empowering the state. Existing parental control tools are sophisticated: parents can already monitor and restrict children's internet use through devices, routers and apps. The push for government-mandated age verification is not about those tools failing; it is about some parents choosing not to use them and governments seizing that negligence as a pretext for surveillance. Rather than investing in education and digital literacy, authorities are expanding their power to decide what everyone can see. The state should not be parenting the public. Yet under the Online Safety Act, every citizen becomes a suspect who must prove innocence before speaking or viewing online. What is framed as "protecting children" is, in practice, the construction of a population-wide compliance system.
November 6, 2025 at 11:53 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
The applicability of the Online Safety Act to generative AI: Ofcom's position and regulatory uncertainties www.taylorwessing.com/en/interface... post by Giulia Carloni via Taylor Wessing (UK)

#genAI #chatbots #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
A more detailed analysis of how chatbots interact with the OSA framework reveals three distinct regulatory contexts: ● users who generate content using chatbots (eg integrating customer service into social media) ● social media or search services that integrate chatbots into their service to respond to or interact with users, and ● the chatbot as a freestanding service, such as ChatGPT, with a further distinction between platforms like Character.AI or Replika Pro that allow users to create or personalise their own chatbots, compared to those that don't.
November 6, 2025 at 11:11 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Family Food detailed dataset update for FYE 2024 (April 2023 to March 2024) www.gov.uk/government/s... + statistical release www.gov.uk/government/s...

#FamilyFood #publichealth #defradata #opendata
'Family Food' is an annual publication which provides detailed statistical information on purchased quantities and expenditure derived from both household and eating out food and drink. Data is collected for a sample of households in the United Kingdom using self-reported diaries of all purchases, including food eaten out, over a two week period. Where possible quantities are recorded in the diaries but otherwise estimated. Current estimates are based on data collected in the 'Family Food Module of the Living Costs and Food Survey'.
November 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Draft Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025 hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025... nominal debate in the UK House of Commons yesterday

Regs www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9...

Context www.gov.uk/government/c...

#fuelprices #roadfuel #govtech #opendata
Quote from Tory MP Greg Smith in UK House of Commons debate on Draft Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025: "The regulations require every fuel station to register with the Government’s appointed data aggregator and report any change in pump prices within 30 minutes. That data must then be made openly available, free of charge, for use by third-party apps, navigation systems and consumer groups. The aim, as the previous Conservative Government set out, is to allow motorists to see in real time who is offering the best price in their area, enabling genuine competition across the fuel market. Fuel Finder is not a bold new idea from the Labour Benches. It is a continuation, albeit a delayed and diluted one, of the Conservative commitment to ensure that motorists can finally see in real time who is charging what and where. This is a rebrand, not a positive policy change."
November 5, 2025 at 9:20 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Digital ID in the UK commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri... updated research briefing from the House of Commons Library, for MPs and those playing along at home

#digitalID #govtech #masssurveillance
November 5, 2025 at 9:05 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Minutes of the Postcode Address File Advisory Board's meeting on 16 October 2025 www.pafboard.org.uk/wp-content/u...

The Codeberry decision gets a mention. Context: ideal-postcodes.co.uk/pdf/GetAddre...

Let that be a lesson to you, PAF licensing scofflaws
2.3 Protection of PAF intellectual property rights The AMU advised that in the recent legal case involving compliance with PAF licensing provisions, the Court had ruled in RM’s favour in a judgement dated 10 October. THE BOARD welcomed the judgement and expressed the hope that publicity around the case would help to drive compliance with the end-user licensing terms for PAF.
November 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Getty's UK copyright case against Stability AI fails www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news...

High Court judgment www.judiciary.uk/judgments/ge...

#genAI #IPlaw #techlaw #openweb
To succeed with its secondary copyright infringement claims, Getty needed to convince the High Court of three things: that: Stable Diffusion was either imported into the UK or possessed, sold, let, hired, or offered or exposed for sale or hire, by Stability AI; that Stable Diffusion is both an 'article' and an 'infringing copy'; and that Stability AI knew or had reasons to believe that Stable Diffusion was an infringing copy. In her ruling, judge Mrs Justice Joanna Smith DBE only part-accepted arguments that Getty advanced in this regard. Regarding how the law on secondary copyright infringement under the CDPA should be interpreted, the judge did side with Getty on what the concept of 'article' should be understood to cover, rejecting Stability AI's arguments that the concept only covers tangible objects. She said that "an article, which must be an infringing copy, is capable of being an electronic copy stored in intangible form". In theory, this finding means it is possible for AI systems or other software to be targeted by claims of secondary copyright infringement in the UK. However, the judge said such claims will only succeed if those 'articles' themselves constitute 'an infringing copy'. She determined that this was not the case with Stable Diffusion.
November 4, 2025 at 3:08 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
In other news, I've updated my Jobcentre Locations GB dataset with a fresh address list supplied by DWP www.datadaptive.com?pg=18

#FOI #opendata #geospatial
Screenshot of a Jobcentre location in Manchester visualised in Google Earth
November 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Online porn showing choking to be made illegal, government says www.bbc.com/news/article... (UK)

Amendments to Crime and Policing Bill bills.parliament.uk/bills/3938/s...

#censorship #pornpanic #culturewar
"Pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation: England and Wales and Northern Ireland (1) After section 67 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 insert— "67A Possession or publication of pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation ( 1) It is an offence for a person to be in possession of an image if— (a) the image is pornographic, within the meaning of section 63, (b) the image portrays, in an explicit and realistic way, a person strangling or suffocating another person, and (c) a reasonable person looking at the image would think that the persons were real. (2) It is an offence for a person to publish an image of the kind mentioned in subsection (1). (3) Publishing an image includes giving or making it available to another person by any means. (4) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to excluded images, within the meaning of section 64.
November 4, 2025 at 2:12 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Wikipedia row erupts as Jimmy Wales intervenes on 'Gaza genocide' page www.thenational.scot/news/2559116...

Statement from Jimbo Wales en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ga... (Talk page for Wikipedia's Gaza genocide article)

#Gazagenocide #gaslighting #openweb
Others said that Wales did not have control over Wikipedia, and was only an editor like anyone else, but had been "trying to pull an authority-based argument while promoting a book". "I'm not sure Jimbo's plea needs to be entertained much beyond demonstrating that current consensus is something different than what he thinks it should be," one user said. Amid the backlash, Wales insisted that he was not saying "that it is not genocide, my argument is that it is not the job of Wikipedia to adjudicate the issue".
November 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM