Barry O'Donovan @barryo@nullspace.ie

“remote processing of biometric data in public spaces for identification purposes fail to strike a fair balance between the competing private and public interests, thus constituting a disproportionate interference with the data subject’s rights under Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter.”

-EDPB

Guidelines 05/2022 on the use of facial recognition technology in the area of law enforcement

https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/documents/public-consultations/2022/guidelines-052022-use-facial-recognition_en

While the politics of general facial recognition of crowds- or indiscriminate processing of the biometric data of innocent people in a public place- are a matter of debate, the legality is not.

The European Data Protection Board issued its assessment of that action immediately before the Minister’s predecessor announced they would legislate for it.

They said it was illegal under EU law.

https://www.thegist.ie/the-gist-face-off/

I see the new Minister has been lashed to the mast of his new Department’s most iffy plan (if *you* are a new Minister, I am available to advise you on escape routes if your Dept wants you to publically tie yourself to a pre-existing plan) to pass a law to allow Gardaí to run facial recognition on the public through CCTV cameras.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41062526.html

Still shocked when I see things like this 1 TB microSD card. The equivalent of 694,400 floppy disks in a form so small I could swallow it painlessly with a bit of water.

Scarily close to reality …

Don’t mind us, just checking out Mastodon.

@ivory vs Twitter app.

Whatever your views about helmet wearing while cycling, it is not a legal requirement in Ireland. The injuries this woman suffered were down to two factors, the inattention of the driver, and the poor infrastructure for cycling in the city. It is simply wrong that she herself would be penalised for these failings.

#CyclingInDublin

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/01/24/cyclists-injury-award-cut-by-20-due-to-not-wearing-safety-helmet/

The decision to reduce compensation for injuries caused by others’ negligence on the basis that the cyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet, and that constitutes contributory negligence is difficult to square with the fact that cyclists have no duty in law to wear a helmet.

(Whether there ought to be such a duty is a matter for the Oireachtas, not the courts)

I feel like we aren't calling the 2038 problem the "epocholypse" often enough

We should all try harder to make this a thing

So, one of the things I do/did on the bird site was track the number of images of women in sport appearing each week in the Irish Times Sports Supplement. I'm not a sports fan, but I am interested in the visibility of women in sport. I've been tracking since March 2019 and the numbers are worse than you'd think. Anyway, here is a round up of the numbers for 2022.
https://medium.com/@sharonlflynn/women-in-sport-2022-in-pictures-47072c517ecb

President Zelenskyy's New Year's message is a superb piece of oratory and filmmaking. I'm not going to pick out a segment - it's only 17 minutes and you deserve to see it in its entirety. It's worth every moment, I promise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANaVkRxDPCI

Hi guys!

Elon Musk bans several prominent journalists from Twitter, calling into question his commitment to free speech
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/media/twitter-musk-journalists-hnk-intl/index.html

Irish MEP Mick Wallace has used his platform in the European Parliament to criticise protests in Iran.
“Iran is under attack,” he said, decrying "propaganda" against the regime.
Violent civil unrest "would not be tolerated anywhere" he told the chamber
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2022/11/24/mick-wallace-criticises-protests-in-iran-and-propaganda-against-regime/

I just popped in to look at the #GDPR hashtag and backed away slowly, closing the door on a global Joe Duffy’s worth of assertions about the law and what it does and doesn’t say.

“While it might seem as though the fall of FTX is about the problems inherent in crypto, it’s actually about the problems inherent in being an arrogant billionaire.”

Greatest columnist in Ireland here, taking a little look the the likes of SBF and Elon Musk, and their weirdo online behaviour. Read here:

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/sam-bankman-fried-elon-musk-5924034-Nov2022/

As we approach the end of #cop27, my view is that:

“We will all regret not acting sooner and faster on reducing emissions. We are already feeling the consequences of previous delays through more extreme weather events, and future generations will not understand why we did not act earlier to limit the consequences.”

Ukrainian forces have retaken 74,000 square kilometres in their counteroffensive, greater than the entire Irish republic and over half the land occupied by Russia in its invasion this year.
My piece on what western allies are expecting to happen next: https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2022/11/16/europe-letter-zelenskiy-outlines-his-ten-point-proposal-for-peace-in-ukraine/ https://t.co/AvCkjUPT1m