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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.
Posts Replies Media Videos
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Ofcom proposals for restrictions on livestreams featuring minors www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

What was that about the importance of the UK's creative industries

#OnlineSafetyAct #ageverification #gaming #censorship #openweb #techpolicy #childrights
Young creators face earning restrictions The age verification changes arrive alongside proposed guidelines from UK regulator Ofcom that would prevent streamers under 18 from earning money through their content. The draft regulations would prohibit donations, subscriptions and other revenue sources for underage creators. Ofcom’s proposals would also block commenting, gifting and recording features on livestreams featuring minors. Regulators argue these restrictions would reduce risks of grooming, bullying and inappropriate influence targeting young content creators. The potential rules could devastate gaming streamers and esports creators under 18, forcing them to either wait until adulthood to monetize their content or migrate to platforms with less restrictive policies. Many young creators have built substantial audiences and depend on streaming income to support their families or fund their education.
November 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Twitch's new face-scan policy sparks fierce backlash rollingout.com/2025/11/15/t...

Age Verification on Twitch help.twitch.tv/s/article/ag...

Well done UK Gov, another community alienated

#OnlineSafetyAct #ageverification #gaming #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Twitch users in the United Kingdom are facing a dramatic new requirement that has ignited fierce debate about privacy, security and online freedom. The popular streaming platform now mandates facial recognition scans for users wanting to access mature content, marking a significant departure from traditional age verification methods. The Amazon-owned platform rolled out the controversial system to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act, fundamentally changing how millions of British viewers interact with the service. Users must now submit to face scans through a built-in app before watching streams containing adult-oriented material.
November 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Afghan data breach: MoD has not done enough to stop future similar incident committees.parliament.uk/committee/12... from Commons PAC

Blaming the tech is a cop out – even without a dedicated casework system, MoD could've avoided the breach with better governance of its workflows for sharing of data
2. The Department did not have appropriate systems and controls in place at the time of the February 2022 breach to manage personal data in a high-risk environment. The Department did not use a caseworking system designed to hold and process high volumes of sensitive personal information relating to the government's Afghan resettlement schemes until May 2022, when it introduced the Defence Afghan Casework System. Instead, the Department relied on Excel spreadsheets stored in a Sharepoint site, which was neither appropriate nor adequate for handling thousands of lines of personal data. The Department was still managing its data in this way when it launched the ARAP in April 2021, amidst a rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. The manner in which the Department was storing and accessing this data contributed to the February 2022 data breach. This is because the individual who sent the email inadvertently shared data on 18,700 people without knowing it was included in the spreadsheet. They thought they were sharing only information relating to 150 people, for a legitimate purpose to gather information about applicants' eligibility.
November 15, 2025 at 2:15 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Video clip of Wikipedia founder/co-founder Jimmy Wales walking out of an interview with German journalist Tilo Jung

Full interview www.youtube.com/live/uswRbWy...
November 15, 2025 at 1:57 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
The APPG on Children's Online Safety has launched an inquiry into 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) Harms and Children's Online Safety' www.childrensonlinesafetyappg.org/inquiries-ai... UK

Submissions by 7 January if you want to chum the waters

#OnlineSafetyAct #genAI #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
The inquiry's objectives are to: ● Investigate the ways AI is perpetuating existing online harms, examining emerging harms and research that has been conducted into the impact of AI on children's well-being and development. ● Identify regulatory and legislative gaps in the Online Safety Act relating to AI technologies. ● Explore how AI can be used positively to support children's online safety. ● Recommend practical, child-centred approaches to AI governance and online safety in the context of the forthcoming AI Bill.
November 14, 2025 at 4:57 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Online Safety Act: VPNs and age verification – what the House of Lords debate reveals www.mishcon.com/news/online-... from @mishcondereya.bsky.social

Recent short debate hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-0...

Expect the hand-wringing to continue

#ageverification #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Lord Leong further confirmed on behalf of the Government that: ● Ofcom will publish a report by June 2026 assessing how effective the use of age assurance has been and whether there are factors that prevent or hinder the effective use of age assurance. This will supplement the guidance published in April 2025 which set out what constitutes HEAA and how service providers can comply with their regulatory duties; and ● Many people use VPNs for entirely legitimate purposes, and a ban on apps promoting VPN use is not being considered.
November 14, 2025 at 4:37 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs — And They Have No Idea What They're Doing www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

(From the US. In the UK our lawmakers don't really know what they're doing either but the stupidity hasn't escalated this far, yet)

#ageverification #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Even in a fantasy world where every website successfully blocked all commercial VPNs, people would just make their own. You can route traffic through cloud services like AWS or DigitalOcean, tunnel through someone else's home internet connection, use open proxies, or spin up a cheap server for less than a dollar. Meanwhile, everyone else (businesses, students, journalists, abuse survivors, regular people who just want privacy) will have their VPN access impacted. The law will accomplish nothing except making the internet less safe and less private for users.
November 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Ofcom letter to bereaved families, Molly Rose Foundation, et al re the US-based online suicide forum that the UK regulator has been investigating under the Online Safety Act www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet... (scroll down)

Unlikely to satisfy anybody, I suspect.

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy
We also have the power to apply to a court for business disruption measures if this is necessary and appropriate. We will absolutely consider the use of such powers if this is necessary to protect UK users. It is important to note that such orders would be granted by the court, not Ofcom, and would be limited to restricting direct access to the site – neither we nor a UK court have a power to 'close down' a website globally, or to force it to apply UK protections to all its users globally. As a result, if a court were to issue an access restriction order to UK Internet Service Providers against this service, it would have a materially similar effect to a geoblock. Users with UK IP addresses would be unable to access the service, but it would remain possible for individuals who actively chose to circumvent such restrictions to access it by concealing their UK IP addresses.
November 14, 2025 at 11:09 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Moral Panic About Rough Sex Gives Way to Censorship in the UK reason.com/2025/11/12/m... by @enbrown.bsky.social, on the "choking ban" and other anti-porn and anti-sw amendments proposed for the UK's crime bill

Crime and Policing Bill bills.parliament.uk/bills/3938/p...

#censorship #culturewar
In the name of "protection," the U.K. government wants to control what women can look at, create, and do with their bodies. Cool, cool, cool. Members of Parliament are also proposing a range of other regulations related to sex work, including one that would define publishing sex worker ads as "pimping" and another that could criminalize paying sex workers for webcam performances.
November 13, 2025 at 7:35 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Hansard transcript of another short debate on the Online Safety Act, in the UK House of Commons yesterday hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025...

#genAI #chatbots #censorship #openweb #techpolicy

Predictable mission creep
Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD) I would like to join hon. Members in really pushing on questions about AI chatbots. Their human-like, assertive nature is filling a gap and many people, including children, are entrusting chatbots with medical opinions, legal advice and emotional support, with fatal consequences and without clear accountability. I know that this has been touched on, but it is really important. Ofcom explicitly includes only user to user or search, so one to one, which is actually where there are some of the most acute harms, is not covered. Will the Minister commit to working with Ofcom on classification, so we can ensure the responsible use of this technology and protect children from the unregulated harms of the growing dependence on chatbots? Kanishka Narayan Let me be very clear: of course we will. We have already both engaged with Ofcom and commissioned further work on this question, and we will report on that at the earliest opportunity.
November 13, 2025 at 4:03 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Things at ONS are worse than I thought www.gov.uk/government/s...
Screenshot of test announcement of official statistics from ONS on GOV·UK: Official statistics announcement sbgfdgfs dfdfa From: Office for National Statistics Published 13 November 2025 Last updated 13 November 2025 Proposed release: 14 November 2025 9:30am Cancellation date: 13 November 2025 12:04pm Statistics release cancelled Test
November 13, 2025 at 2:04 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
AI and copyright – transcript of evidence to the Lords Communications and Digital Committee last week committees.parliament.uk/event/25465/...

Rightsholders are struggling to find infringements of their existing rights so can they have some more please

#genAI #IPlaw #techpolicy #fairuse #openweb
This is against the backdrop of the amount of AI-generated images, which is estimated at 15 billion, with an average output of about 34 million synthetic images per day. Where we are talking about challenges, it really is trying to find a commercial infringement among those outputs. It is like finding a needle in a haystack. I do not think that there is a more appropriate analogy than that. Even if creators find infringements, the perception is of the high risk of taking a case to court; the cost and time involved in litigating against, for example, big tech, potentially losing and then setting off, for example, a wide-scale "in the style of" infringement — and I want to underline the "in the style of" point, because that has become a significant burden for creators. Part of the displacement that is happening with their jobs is the fact that they have no opportunity to protect the style of their work. One of the things we would be asking is whether it is time for a UK personality right that sits under trademark, rather than copyright.
November 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Letter from ONS's new Permanent Secretary setting out swingeing cuts to statistical programmes www.ons.gov.uk/news/stateme... (UK)

ONS pledges "quality over quantity" with key statistics prioritised www.ons.gov.uk/news/news/on...

#opendata #datapolicy
Today, I am writing to you to inform you we have taken the decision to substantially narrow the scope of our work. We will do this through: • Reducing our commitments in health • Reviewing funding of crime statistics • Reconsidering our subnational statistics portfolio • Engaging government departments in areas of economic statistics • Narrowing the focus of our international work • Consolidating our business surveys portfolio • Further reduce the number of outputs A full breakdown of these prioritisation decisions can be found in Annex A.
November 12, 2025 at 10:40 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
I've updated my interactive map of Large Raised Reservoirs in England and Wales www.owenboswarva.com/blog/note-lr...

This is based on recent extracts from public registers maintained by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales

#FOI #opendata #reservoirs #floodrisk
Screenshot of interactive map showing information from public registers for large raised reservoirs in England and Wales
November 12, 2025 at 8:01 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
School must reconsider demand to reveal legal bill www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/school-... (England)

This procedural blindspot – ICO's tendency, when faced with conflicting accounts, to just accept the factual basis provided by the public authority – may be familiar to other #FOI requesters.
20. Overall, it is relevant that the Commissioner's decision was based on information from the School that was not supported by evidence or checked with the Claimant. There is no obligation on the Commissioner to check information with a complainant before making his decision (and the procedure followed by the Commissioner is outside the Tribunal's remit). However, in this case we had detailed appeal grounds from the Appellant which challenged the version of events from the School and provided supporting evidence. The Commissioner's response did not address these grounds of appeal in any detail. We have therefore accepted the Appellant’s version of events where this conflicts with the information in the Commissioner's decision.
November 11, 2025 at 3:35 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
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
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
Lawyer Preston Byrne, who is acting pro bono for the suicide forum, has published correspondence from Ofcom prestonbyrne.com/2025/11/06/t... (scroll down)

Ofcom seems to allege that the provider is running mirrors that aren't geoblocking UK users.

#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Ofcom has become aware that the voluntary block in place on the above two websites restricting userswith UK IP addresses from accessing these domains is no longer effective to restrict UK users fromaccessing the service or its content. In particular, we note that content from the service remainsaccessible to users with UK IP addresses at another domain, namely https://dignifiedexit.com. A review of the site suggests that the content, functionality and design of the service on dignifiedexit.com appears identical to that on the two identified Sanctioned Suicide domains, including branding and layout. As such, we believe that this website forms part of the regulated user-to-user service 'Sanctioned Suicide'. Our technical investigations also suggest that the same underlying origin server is serving all domains (Sanctioned-suicide.net, Sanctionedsuicide.site and dignifiedexit.com), and this also suggests that all three domains are being controlled by the same service provider. In light of this development, we intend to continue with our investigation into the provider of SanctionedSuicide's compliance with the Act.
November 7, 2025 at 10:45 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