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19 June 2020

Appy talk

GOVERNMENT RUNS PILOT SCHEME, DEVELOPS ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION ALONGSIDE, CHANGES COURSE WHEN TRIAL FINDS FAULTS was surprisingly not one of the headlines heralding the government's abandonment of the original NHSX contact tracing app in favour of closer working with Google and Apple (and not just because no self-respecting sub, outside the New York Times, would run a headline that long, with that many commas).

There are undoubtedly questions for the government to answer - why it was so tempted by tech solutionism at the expense of designing a proper test and trace system; why it made the 'world-beating' app the centrepiece of the banquet before demoting it to a mere cherry on the cake; whether it should have pursued the course it did knowing compatibility with Apple's iOS operating system (and to some extent, Android) could be a problem and whether the UK has lost time as a result; why there wasn't more openness about the Isle of Wight trial; and why the data protection impact assessment for test and trace wasn't completed before the service was rolled out, for a start. And it's obviously not encouraging when the government has already u-turned a dizzying number of times in recent days and weeks.

But for all the justified questions and criticisms, some of the government's critics are being somewhat disingenuous. The trade-offs between centralised (as originally pursued by NHSX) and decentralised (Google/Apple) approaches are more nuanced than is being allowed; the UK is not alone in facing problems rolling out an app; and there are some rather big debates to be had about the respective power of democratic governments and technology companies.

In its statement yesterday, the Department of Health and Social Care claimed that their tests had also found problems with the Google/Apple approach (specifically, how well that solution could measure the distance between devices), and they're not the only ones, which points to a more fundamental question: will any of the proposed apps work?

This hasn't really been done before. The Ada Lovelace Institute said at the start of the crisis that there was 'an absence of evidence to support the immediate national deployment' of mooted technological solutions, including contact tracing apps. Has that changed? Can anyone yet point to a country where a contact tracing app has been shown to have worked? Where an app has been a substitute for (or even a significant part of) a well-designed, broader test and trace system and other measures? Whether the UK public would tolerate some of the infringements on privacy associated with tech-based approaches in some other countries?

Given the situation, a change in approach is welcome and sensible. Continuing down this track (as it were) risked damaging public confidence in the system, and it is vital that government maintains public confidence and earns public trust, especially when it comes to how it uses our data. The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation put it well when it said its role was to ensure that 'the speed at which innovation must move doesn’t demand that the values of transparency, privacy, scrutiny and good governance are foregone - compromising the public’s trust in public sector innovation longer term'.

Getting it wrong could have long-term consequences. But let's not pretend getting it right is going to be easy.

Three more things:

I've written a comment piece on the prime minister's call for a new cross-government commission on racial inequality. Maybe start with implementing the recommendations of previous inquiries and follow previous initiatives (including some data-related ones)? And if not, at least give us some more details on what it will look like and what it's trying to achieve, and pledge that its recommendations will be adopted?

The winners of this year's Orwell Prizes will be announced on 9 July. Catch up on the shortlists in the meantime.

And details of the next Data Bites will be going live here very, very soon. See you at 6pm on Wednesday 1 July. Previous events here.

Have a good weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Tips and tech

Lessons learned from organising the first ever virtual csv,conf (Open Knowledge Foundation)

EXPERIENCES OF FACILITATING ONLINE: INNOVATING, ADJUSTING AND KEEPING THINGS THE SAME (Involve)

Graphic content

Viral content

3 months of a global pandemic (Citizens Advice)

I've mapped Google's excellent mobility data (Dan Cookson)

A warning from South Korea: the ‘fantasy’ of returning to normal life (FT)

You Regress It: Have Masks Prevented 66,000 Infections in New York City? (roadtolarissa)

Brexit Heartlands Pay the Highest Price for Coronavirus* (Bloomberg)

Visualizing COVID-19 (Graphicacy)

Much of the world thinks the response to the pandemic has been poor* (The Economist)

What could a physically distanced UK look like after lockdown? (The Guardian)

When the Coronavirus Outbreak Could Peak in Each U.S. State* (Bloomberg)

Poverty and populism put Latin America at the centre of pandemic* (FT)

Pandemic Travel Patterns Hint at Our Urban Future* (Bloomberg)

Viral content: economic consequences

UK GDP - animated version (Henry Lau)

English shoppers’ return points to a gradual retail recovery* (FT)

How many charity employees have been furloughed? (David Kane)

Four conclusions from latest UK labour market data* (FT)

The geography of the COVID-19 crisis in England (IFS)

#BlackLivesMatter

Black Lives Matter protests prompt millions to search online for race history facts* (The Times)

Unemployment Tracker: Job Losses for Black Workers Are Deepening* (New York Times)

YOU KNOW KAREN (The Pudding)

Cities Grew Safer. Police Budgets Kept Growing.* (The Upshot)

The systemic racism black Americans face, explained in 9 charts (Vox)

Exclusive: Top British firms to pay compensation over founders' slavery links* (Telegraph)

UK politics

Keir Starmer scores the highest satisfaction ratings *ever* of an opposition leader on record (Dylan Spielman, Ipsos MORI, via Lee, Tim and Marcus)

Covid could do for Johnson what the snap election did for May (Matt Smith)

The other reason the government U-turned on free school meals* (New Statesman)

UK government

DfID/FCO merger (IfG - bit more here)

Being updated imminently: civil service staff numbers, freedom of information (IfG)

Ministerial directions (IfG)

US politics

America’s anachronistic electoral college gives Republicans an edge* (The Economist)

Wall Street takes aim at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in party primary* (FT)

House of Lords: Virtual sittings, participation and Covid-19 (House of Lords Library)

Environment

Emissions Are Surging Back as Countries and States Reopen* (New York Times)

Can India chart a low-carbon future? The world might depend on it.* (Washington Post)

Mean annual temperature for Northern Ireland (Department of Agriculture, Environmental and Rural Affairs)

Sport

FootballGeek

Fight for fourth? Data reveals it will be long road for Manchester United* (The Times)

Everything else

Country & Product Complexity Rankings (Atlas of Economic Complexity)

The unluckiest generation in U.S. history* (Washington Post)

Mark Duggan police shooting: can forensic tech cast doubt on official report? (The Guardian)

Fighting in the Sahel has forced 1.7m people from their homes* (The Economist)

Digital News Report 2020 (Reuters Institute)

Leftwing voters lead decline in trust in UK news media (The Guardian)

#dataviz

Truncating the axis (Chad Skelton and others)

Infographics (Government Statistical Service)

When the pie chart is more complex than the data (Junk Charts)

How your colorblind and colorweak readers see your colors (Datawrapper)

What Graphs Reveal (If You Give Them Time) (Math with Bad Drawings)

Slow Reveal Graphs

Survival Analysis in Alteryx and Tableau; or, the survival of biscuits (Gwilym Lockwood)

Meta data

Viral content: Appy talk, keep talkin' appy talk, talk about things you'd like to do

Next phase of NHS coronavirus (COVID-19) app announced (DHSC)

UK virus-tracing app switches to Apple-Google model (BBC News)

Turn it off and on again: lessons learned from the NHS contact tracing app (Ada Lovelace Institute)

Personal data and coronavirus (IfG)

Trinity study confirms accuracy concerns on contact tracing apps (Trinity College Dublin)

What happened to Matt Hancock's coronavirus contact-tracing app? (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Coronavirus: Contact-tracing apps face further hitches (BBC News)

Looking at the recently-released SAGE documents on contact tracing, it's striking how central the app is to the whole plan (Rowland Manthorpe)

You may be wondering what's going on with the contact tracing app... (Rowland Manthorpe)

Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway contact tracing apps among most dangerous for privacy (Amnesty International)

Viral content: oh, the immunity

Plans for coronavirus immunity passports should worry us all (Wired)

Explainer: Immunity certificates (CDEI)

Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation criticised after supporting controversial immunity passports (NS Tech)

Viral content: everything else

Just How Historic Is the Latest Covid-19 Science Meltdown?* (Wired)

Landmark IT deal will provide access to digital tools and save hundreds of millions of pounds for the NHS (NHS Digital)

How Data Became One of the Most Powerful Tools to Fight an Epidemic* (New York Times)

Out of the shadows: The value of data in times of crisis (Ed Humpherson for ADR UK)

Public Health in the Information Age: Recognising the Infosphere as a Social Determinant of Health (Jessica Morley, Josh Cowls, Mariarosaria Taddeo, Luciano Floridi)

The Economy Is Reeling. The Tech Giants Spy Opportunity.* (New York Times)

Data and Covid-19: why standards matter (ODI)

Data in the time of Covid-19 (Understanding Patient Data)

A rapid online deliberation on COVID-19 technologies: building public confidence and trust (Ada Lovelace Institute)

A prototype that compares coronavirus response sites (Public Digital, via Andrew)

AI Barometer (CDEI)

Alternative visions for the future of AI (Nesta)

Everyone’s talking about ethics in AI. Here’s what they’re missing (Fast Company)

Joint Statement from founding members of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (DCMS/Office for AI)

Geospatial awareness

Unlocking the power of location:The UK’s geospatial strategy (Geospatial Commission)

Reviews: Owen, Jeni, Peter, Anna

Geospatial Commission Charter (Geospatial Commission)

Geospatial Glossary (Geospatial Commission)

Parliament

Developer hub (UK Parliament)

Report on Digital Development (Stance for Parliamentary Digital Service, October 2019)

Government

Seeing government, being seen by government. (Alex)

The role of technology in governance: The example of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (Natasha McCarthy and Franck Fourniol for Data & Policy)

NI civil servant voices warning on deleted emails (BBC News)

A question for government data people (James Plunkett)

What we learnt from the first phase of the GovTech Catalyst (GDS)

Everything else

Police in England and Wales dropping rape inquiries when victims refuse to hand in phones (The Guardian)

Mobile phone data extraction by police forces in England and Wales: Investigation report (ICO)

The Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You This* (The Atlantic)

IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon’s face recognition bans don’t go far enough (Fast Company)

TALES FROM THE CRYPTO (Frank Pasquale for Public Books)

Facebook to let users turn off political adverts (BBC News)

The three tests of internet regulation (Heather Burns)

Opportunities

EVENT: Why GovCamp North? (GovCamp North)

EVENT: Shoshana Zuboff meets Margrethe Vestager: A conversation about a future digital Europe - webinar (Danish Society of Engineers)

JOB: Deputy Head, Office for Artificial Intelligence (DCMS/BEIS)

JOB: Economic Advisor - Lead Analyst - Office of Artificial Intelligence (DCMS/BEIS)

JOB: Director of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (NHS Digital)

JOB: Head of Software Development (DfE)

And finally...

Maps

Country names in any language (Arun Ganesh)

Here's the geographical distribution of the 10 most common pub names in Great Britain (Colin Angus)

The topologist's map of the world - a map showing international borders, and nothing else (r/MapPorn)

Everything else

HTTP status codes as emoji .. this might be a good idea? (@francesc)

Chart shows the changing appearance of copper throughout the patina process (via Simon Kuestenmacher)

#registers (via Max Fras, via Oliver)

Won't somebody please...

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