andrew fergusson

Tag: politics

  • What does a cold war look like?

    Anthropic claiming to have built a generative AI so powerful at finding security vulnerabilities in software that they spin up a special project announcing how good it is and how you won’t be able to have it and note that it is available to the following companies and foundations:

    • Amazon Web Services (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • Anthropic (Privately owned American-domiciled corporation)
    • Apple (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • Broadcom (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • Cisco (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • CrowdStrike (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • Google (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • JPMorganChase (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • the Linux Foundation (American-domiciled charitable foundation)
    • Microsoft (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • NVIDIA (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)
    • Palo Alto Networks (Publicly traded American-domiciled corporation)

    I’m looking at this list and it doesn’t scream “Atlanticism is alive and well.”

  • Financial Spite

    Today I learned that Curve is a UK-based fintech owned by the UK-listed Lloyds Banking Group. I knew what they were offering for a while but never signed up because a card intermediary ruins many of the consumer protections enjoyed by card payments in the UK. But Curve has payment wearables. This would be incredibly convenient.

    In February 2026, and for the previous several years, I have used Apple Pay for pretty much everything. With Apple getting 0.15% of the transaction, you’re looking at… maybe £75 for the life of my usage?

    In March, I used Apple Pay twice. Both times I forgot my wallet. And although once was four taps, it was for a return journey between Zone 2 and Zone 1 of Transport for Greater Manchester, so only one transaction.

    I can’t excise myself from Yankee card payment providers yet (bring on an end to the Mastercard/Visa/Amex dominance, please), but I’ve managed to make more of my money stay in the UK with this change.

    I hope to be able to do more of this. And a Curve ring might be the backup for “I forgot my wallet” I otherwise used Apple Pay for this March.

  • A Letter to my Councillors: Preventing Rumoured Changes to Tram Service Salford

    tl;dr: Salford tram service is rumoured to be made worse to support the Trafford line. I wrote to my councillors to ask them to prevent this.

    Hello Councillors,

    I’m writing about a rumoured change to tram service into Salford that will be introduced as a temporary measure; however, the last temporary tram service change to Salford lasted over four years.

    I have heard that TfGM is planning to do the following to services into Salford:

    • Closing the Etihad to MediaCity line
    • Reducing the Ashton–Eccles service from five an hour (12 minutes) to four an hour (15 minutes)
    • Changing all trams on the remaining Ashton–Eccles line to double

    This is to support a service change on the Trafford line to run to Oldham.

    I am aware that the current electric network within the city centre for trams doesn’t permit additional capacity; however, these two changes needlessly punish Salford. TfGM has frequently defended poor service to Salford with the argument that all services run at a 12-minute frequency while ignoring that the vast majority of destinations across the network have service by more than one line, with the richest terminus stations on the network served by several.

    Additionally, afternoon and rush-hour service from the stops at Salford Quays and Exchange Quay will get intolerably busy, as people are frequently passed up by two services every 12 minutes with a single tram; a 15-minute service with a double tram would make the situation even worse.

    I do not want to see this network change. The walk from where I live near Mariners Canal will have a substantially degraded tram service, and the walk to the nearest Trafford line station is a horrible zigzag diversion due to the Peel Buildings’ selfish fortifications.

    The current state of the tram network and lack of investment in reducing service bottlenecks in the centre zone should not be compensated for by an intentional deterioration of Salford’s already poor service provision.

    I would like to see Salford as a whole come out strongly against these changes to the tram network services and ideally block them.

    Warm regards,

    Andrew

  • Infinite Algorithm Consequences

    The more I think on the #ukPol push to ban under-16s from social media I think that I’m convinced problem is “the algorithm”.

    I had access to porn at a very young age, but it wasn’t foisted upon me (barring the odd goatse link) in a continual scroll situation. When you finished reading your friends’ Geocities updates, or Livejournal reverse chronological feed you were done.

    Algorithmic recommendation is editorial, and if social media companies were made accountable for it–would they then stop?

    There is a distinct lack of talking about the accountability gap in #ukPol. Amazon selling advertisements to marketplace sellers hawking dangerous/faulty counterfeit goods with no consequences. Influencers boosting their reach hawking damaging grey market tanning nasal spray using TikTok’s built in systems to make a small commission.

    Both of these have large companies shrugging about the specific harms they cause as there was no human intervention on their part, so no accountability?

    Considering the bullshit spouted in many UK newspapers, somehow #ukPol sees better regulation of their editorial line than big American tech companies. It’s a gap that could quickly be fixed.

    And my theory is that they’d abandon the algorithm if the consequences were greater than the profit they gain from it.

    And maybe we’d go back to seeing your friend’s posts on Instagram, with a less addictive product. Once you’ve caught up it has nothing left for you to do. So one can put their phone down.

    Originally posted as a thread on my Mastodon instance.

  • Data Are Cool: Disseminating My Online Safety Act Compliance

    The Online Safety Act is a piece of work, and not a good one either. Ofcom is not an excellent or communicative regulator. Because they are responsible for both setting the rules and components of enforcement they won’t provide advice which would prejudice their future enforcement. That said, there is a quick test to see whether a given website is in scope of the Online Safety Act:

    1. Does the service have links with the United Kingdom?
    2. Is the service a user-to-user-service?
    3. Do you provide a search service?
    4. Does your online service publish or display pornographic content?
    5. Do any of the enumerated exemptions apply?

    I’m going to cover these in turn, but the tl;dr is that I don’t believe Data Are Cool (DAC) is in scope of the Online Safety Act.

    Does the service have links with the United Kingdom?

    There are two components to this test, first is whether UK users are a target market, and second is whether the service has a significant number of UK users. If you hit either one of them you’re in scope of the Online Safety Act.

    The UK as a target market test

    From the first page of Ofcom’s Check if the regulations apply to your online service form has the following bullets which helps make a determination for whether the UK is a target market:

    Your online service is likely to have links with the United Kingdom if:

    • Is designed for UK users;
    • Is promoted or marketed toward UK users;
    • Generates revenue from UK users either:
      • directly (e.g. via subscriptions or sales); or
      • indirectly (e.g. through advertising to UK users, including people or organizations);
    • Includes functionalities or content that is tailored for UK users; or
    • Has a UK domain or provides a UK contact address and/or telephone contact number.

    I don’t believe DAC is designed for UK users, it is not promoted or marketed, it generates no revenue, none of its content is tailored to UK users, and it doesn’t have a UK domain. It’s user base are my friends and family. There is no sign up capabilities.

    The significant number of UK users test

    The second component of this test is whether there are a significant number of UK users. Ofcom flat out refuse to define even by orders of mangitude what a significant number of UK users is.

    Candidly, DAC has 10 user accounts. I would reckon a significant number of UK users is well in the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.

    UK links conclusion?

    Ironically as I read this, DAC doesn’t demonstrate “links with the United Kingdom”. It neither has links to the United Kingdom, nor has a significant number of UK users. Using the Regulation Checker form, the answer immediately becomes “No, the Online Safety Act is not likely to apply to your online service.” This is a good start, but let’s check the remaining tabs anyways.

    Is the service a user-to-user-service?

    Ofcom defines a user-to-user service as “an online service that allows its users to interact with each other.”

    DAC does this. It’s a social network. It’s a user-to-user service. Moving on.

    Do you provide a search service?

    Ofcom defines a search service as “online service which is, or includes, a search engine. A search engine is a feature which enables users to search more than one website and/or database.”

    The nature of Mastodon/Fediverse is that it is a search service. It’s a federated social network. It’s a search service; but also one that requires people to log in to search the Fediverse.

    Does your online service publish or display pornographic content?

    DAC does not have any alts (aka pornographic focused accounts) on the service; however some of DAC’s adult users have subscribed to the feeds of users elsewhere in the Fediverse who do post pornographic content. So we don’t publish it, but we do display it to logged-in users.

    Exemptions?

    DAC isn’t exempt from the Online Safety Act in the form of their carve outs. Though there’s a small amount of snark from me because it exempts UK Parliament’s websites from the Online Safety Act. The UK Parliament’s petition website clearly would otherwise meet the threshold of a user-to-user service with UK targeting, and UK users in the millions. Sauce for the goose? Natch.

    Anywho…

    Conclusion

    Going back through these tests, I don’t believe DAC is in scope of the Online Safety Actmainly because I don’t believe it meets the thresholds established as “links to the United Kingdom”. It feels weird to phrase it this way, but…

    1. DAC isn’t designed for UK users (it isn’t designed beyond being a Mastodon instance);
    2. DAC isn’t promoted or marketed to UK users (it’s not promoted or marketed at all);
    3. DAC doesn’t generate revenue from UK users (I fund it out of my own pocket);
    4. DAC doesn’t have content tailored to UK users (it’s a social network for my friends and family);
    5. DAC doesn’t have a UK domain (it’s a vanity domain outside the country TLDs); and
    6. DAC doesn’t have a significant number of UK users (it has 10 users and I suspect significant is in the order of hundreds of thousands).

    If Ofcom comes knocking, I’ll engage in good faith with them. Especially since I still plan on doing the Extra-Illegal Content/Harms risk assessments they require; however I won’t be killing my service because of the Online Safety Act.

    I’m not going to be complacent about this, but I’m not going to worry about it either.

    Ofcom, if you’re reading this and want to get in touch, find all the details to contact me at Data Are Cool: about page.

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