One critic argued that EU officials were adopting “techno-solutionism” to sideline moral considerations in dealing with the complex issue of migration.
The Globe and Mail Edin Omanovic and Siena Anstis Contributed to The Globe and Mail Published April 16, 2021 Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
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Edin Omanovic is the advocacy director at Privacy International.
Siena Anstis is senior legal adviser at the Citizen Lab.
Last May, writer and activist Mushtaq Ahmed was arrested in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, for criticizing the government’s response to COVID-19 on Facebook. According to his wife, officers from a paramilitary unit arrived in five vehicles at 1:44 in the morning, taking Mr. Ahmed into police custody where he was held without trial up until his death last month.
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A data analytics team close to the heart of government has collected data on more than 650 million people, including children under the age of 13, according to newly unearthed documents.
The Data Services & Analytics unit is described as “one of the most advanced data analytics centres in government” and forms part of the Home Office’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) department. It builds decision-making tools and provides data-driven insights to the rest of the Home Office – although details of exactly what it does remain tightly guarded.
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The huge amount of data being analysed and the Home Office’s lack of transparency has prompted accusations from privacy campaigners that the unit could be creating a “super database” that risks exacerbating racial biases among law enforcement agencies.