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Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

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Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#131
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference betwen fear mongering and educating about risks?

The difference is the beholder. If the beholder's income is threatened when people are educated about risks, they'll invariably declare it fear mongering.

My prior comment was so well received that I'd like to add that another motivator for claims of "fear monger!" is when people delight in their lack of concern, such that the concern of anyone else feels threatening to them.

I worked a summer shift at a heavy machinery factory just after high school before college. I was the single and only person, to my knowledge, that made use of the provided ear and air protection (a face mask and ear plugs, given that we worked with fiberglass with incredibly loud machines).

I was told multiple times that I was "paranoid" and faced a negative reaction because someone protecting themselves pierced a hole in the delusion that everything was fine.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tax burden is high. They could certainly do with reducing it in my personal opinion. A leaflet comes through the door every year or so telling me how much they spend in the local council. Usually the highest amount is not on schools, not on libraries, not on health, not on sweeping the streets or maintaining parks and playgrounds etc, but on "adult social care" (1) which as far as I know is a euphemism for benefi…

Adult social care covers a few things, but most of it is literally paying care workers to look after old and vulnerable people. This isn’t what most people would consider a benefit, but a basic dignity.

My father's cousin has been living in social care for the last few years. He was put into a home associated with the council, but as he owned a home (that he'd lived in his whole life) he was forced to sell it to pay for his care. He is able to do most things by himself, but just needs someone to provide a bit of mental support - basically a friend. My father is his closest relative, but lives on the other side of the country.

Currently he pays ~£800 per week, which when the house was sold was backdated to pay for all the care he received. The thing is though that is just the care, the private landlord of the home has now decided he needs to pay another £700 per week for rent. The home is rather run down and he only has a tiny bedroom for himself (the bathroom is shared). As I understand the company providing the care is a private for-profit company too.

I'm not really surprised most council taxes is spent on social care if this is how much private companies are charging them.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#133
post #40
post #35

Advertising is starting to edge towards the side of "Universal Evil." We need some serious regulatory controls on this stuff because it is getting out of control. GDPR is a step in the right direction, but sites and advertisers are pretty much flouting it at this point.

Why is it starting to edge towards "Universal Evil"?

Probably 2 things:

1. Bulk collection of millions of people's habits and data.

2. Misleading "click bait" style ads.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#134
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the cookie used for the site to function (or a component of it) or for tracking/ads. Only the latter needs consent.

Is a session cookie with datetime of access (and last visit somehow), so probably fine. not up on cookies and Gdpr tbh, I deal with other types of data normally.

You can drop cookies that are “essential to running your business” without consent, the gdpr tcf 1.1 consent management platforms drop a “euconsent” cookie to store your consent choice lol.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#135
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting these additional requests. They're being blocked, so result in a warning message in the console. Didn't see anything in network requests for them. - https://static.hotjar.com/c/hotjar-1043047.js?sv=5 - https://cse.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js - https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js Also, the site is setting a cookie even though I've not consented. EDIT: Also, one of the lambeth.gov js s…

Is the cookie used for the site to function (or a component of it) or for tracking/ads. Only the latter needs consent.

It's tracking cookies. I have Google, Facebook and Hotjar cookies set on initial request before even having seen the cookie consent box.

However that's how the vast majority of sites implement the cookie consent regulation, and authorities (like ICO in UK) has decided to not do anything about it.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#136
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>From my network requests I see: >[...] >Nothing out of the ordinary here looks like you're not picking up a bunch of requests. maybe you have ublock? Here are some domains that aren't on your list: www.google-analytics.com script.hotjar.com cse.google.com vars.hotjar.com www.facebook.com stats.g.doubleclick.net static.hotjar.com connect.facebook.net

Hmm, not getting these. I disabled uBlock for my results. I'll see what else may be the cause.

I think we would all benefit from an update on your comment correcting it with the new factual information. I too have all the tracking scripts included when loading the page.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#137

"This report should spur Elizabeth Denham, the UK Information Commissioner, to finally enforce the GDPR." What is the status of GDPR in the UK now that Brexit has occurred? Is the UK still beholden to the terms of the law, or does the UK have a parallel law that applies now that they're no longer part of the EU?

[deleted]

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#138
post #30
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>From my network requests I see: >[...] >Nothing out of the ordinary here looks like you're not picking up a bunch of requests. maybe you have ublock? Here are some domains that aren't on your list: www.google-analytics.com script.hotjar.com cse.google.com vars.hotjar.com www.facebook.com stats.g.doubleclick.net static.hotjar.com connect.facebook.net

None of those really stand out as being problematic. Google Analytics, Hotjar are measurement tools. CSE is google's custom search endpoint, stats.*.doubleclick.net is a doubleclick for publishers endpoint (Google's ad server) and doesn't mean much by itself, it doesn't automatically show ads from third parties or send your data to anyone. The Facebook tags are sadly quite popular these days, I do agree those are not…

The fact that you think the Facebook tag is "not ideal" while all the Google tags are not problematic, just shows how much people has bought in to the original "Don't be evil" motto and unfortunately how easy it is for Google to go under the radar in privacy discussions.

Both Facebook and Google are advertising companies. Both of them have littered the web with their scripts and GIFs making it possible for them to track everything we do. The only difference is how we trust them with our data, and honestly I think they are very equal in this regard. Both of them will track us as much as possible within applicable legislation and their own terms.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#139
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of fiscal « downloading » is also a way to keep wealth within your council, and poor areas can just get bent because they’ll have more needs, but the least ability to get revenue. (If council’s primary revenue source is council tax within their own council).

That would be nice... but councils can only increase tax by <2% per year, and most of their revenue comes from a 'grant' by central government, which has been cut ~40% in the last decade.

> but councils can only increase tax by The current cap is 2.99% and the 2020-21 plans are for 3.99%, which is split between the core principle and the adult social care principle. It is unlikely that many councils will increase it by less than the fully-permitted amount.

Also council tax increases in the recent past have capped at 5.99% some year~s and many actual increases were between 4.5% and 5.5%.

Re: Surveillance on UK council websites [pdf]

#140

Here's the service promoting advertising on Government web sites in the UK.[1] From their FAQ: Q: "Could the data collected be used to exploit individual circumstances?" A: "There is no intention to do this. In all forms of advertising, companies want to appear in front of the people most likely to buy their products or services." "Just as an advertiser will choose an ad space in a publication because of its readersh…

Seems like they aren’t aware of the law or explicitly violating it and hoping to get away with it (which unfortunately isn’t a bad strategy considering Google and Facebook are still around). The thing with the law (the GDPR in this case) is that it applies to everyone equally. It doesn’t matter whether your intentions are good, if the law says you can’t collect certain data without explicit user consent then you shou…

What good intentions? That quoted FAQ walked around the core point: advertising is, for the most part, exploiting.

> So, a user browsing for information on a benefits webpage might be shown ads relevant for people on a budget, like for reduced price travel or supermarket price cuts on everyday items or a comparison website to find the best tariff on gas and electricity.

Or payday loans, or get-rich-quick schemes, or gambling, or news articles about how the elite is oppressing them, or "save your money on power bill by bundling it with your mobile service" borderline scams.

It's not like the government, or the company that wrote that FAQ, will be actively filtering the ads to ensure that only the honest win-win deals are shown.

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