Horizon now — ICO on the ‘lock files’ – How politics blocked technology – Politics

– Researchers and business leaders are pressing the UK and EU to secure the Horizon Association ASAP.

– We explore how political chaos defeated Britain’s technological grand scheme.

— ICO weighs in on Matt Hancock’s leaked WhatsApp messages.

Good morning and welcome.

The sun is shining, the weekend is two days away and packed morning tech UK is all right.

You can send your news, activity, events and tips to Annabelle Dixon, Mark Scott and myself. Also find us on Twitter: @TomSBristow @NewsAnnabelle @markscott82.

Horizon now: The R&D sector is itching to get going with the Horizon programme. Three days have passed since the Windsor framework opened talks for the UK to rejoin the European research programme. The UK has been shut out of Horizon funding for the past two years, which has a budget of around €100 billion. However, with the progress of the Northern Ireland Protocol, both sides are expected to meet for discussion. In a joint statement today, researchers in the UK, Ireland and Europe urged them to move faster.

Who signed it? The signatories include key names from the world of R&D and wider industry – the Wellcome Trust, the Russell Group, CBI, and Campaign for Science and Engineering, among many others.

Eyes on the prize; The UK Horizon Association is urging the UK and the EU to make “renewed efforts towards constructive dialogue” to get them “on the fast track”, urging them not to “miss the prize”.

Winner-winner: Nicola Eckersley-Whites, Head of Innovation at the CBI, emphasized that the Horizon Alliance is a “win-win” for the UK and the EU and how important it is for UK businesses and researchers. She added: “It’s about funding, but also about the network and collaboration opportunities it gives the UK across Europe.”

Time to strengthen: US Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donnellan told us as the Windsor Framework was announced on Monday that the UK has been “working tirelessly over the past two years to secure Horizon and to reshape the Union.” “We will intensify those discussions to ensure that this breaks the deadlock,” she added.

hang on: But it is not simply a case of reintegration. In the year A deal has been made from 2021, but the current schedule is two years away, meaning the UK’s share of funding has to be agreed. Asked at PMQs by former health minister Philip Dunne about the start of the Horizon negotiations since the Windsor framework was announced, Rishi Sunak was determined to “continue to work with the EU in a range of areas – not just research collaboration”.

Bye-bye Barcelona: It’s the last day of MWC2023 in Barcelona. Follow our reporter Mathieu Pollet for the latest.

**Message from Google: Olivia wants to download Toontastic 3D. Dealing with children and their devices is not easy. The Google Family Link app sends a phone notification to parents to block or approve their child’s app downloads. So that’s one little thing to watch out for. know more.**

Can the digital strategy stand up? When the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Brexit was supposed to free the country from onerous European rules and allow politicians in Westminster to chart their own course. But when it comes to technology, those grand plans are still waiting to turn into reality. Read more from Mark on how politics defeated London’s tech ambitions.

Not that England lacks ambition. There are strategies on digital, innovation and data. There are ideas on online content, data optimization and digital competition. But industry watchers, civil society groups and some officials complain that an endless cycle of digital ministers and shifting priorities from Westminster leave no one satisfied with how Britain’s digital ambitions are playing out.

Two questions follow: What does the UK need for its technology agenda? And how exactly does that come true? With 18 months to go until the general election, the answers to those fundamental questions – often conflicting – have left many wondering where the benefits (for technology) that were central to the Brexit promise lie.

No competition. EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager has warned against regulators competing to be the first to intervene in cases such as Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, Bloomberg reported.

Hypocrites: Beijing officials hit back at EU governments, saying they were hypocritical in their ban on TikTok. hypocrisy, Mich? Germany’s health ministry, which banned the app for employees, continues to operate the TikTok account because it is not for “official purposes,” Politico reported.

Staying with China: Belgium’s cyber security authority blamed China for a cyber attack on a Belgian lawmaker, the FT reported.

OK Computer: Romanian Prime Minister Nicola Ciuca surprised his cabinet on Wednesday by introducing a new member — one that will be run entirely by artificial intelligence, Politico reported.

Digital Dollar Talks: A senior US Treasury official announced on Wednesday that an interagency task force has been formed to examine the possibility of a central bank digital currency. More on POLITICO Pro.

Terrorism and OSB: Jonathan Hull Casey, the UK’s independent terrorism law reviewer, has been pondering the Online Safety Bill and found a loophole that could potentially expose terrorist content.

Three reasons: Ofcom will have powers under the bill to serve up “advertisements of terrorist content”, but the scope of the regulator to do so will vary depending on whether the content is public or private. In order to determine the severity of the response, it will need to look at three factors (paragraph 203), including the number of people in the UK who can access the content, any access restrictions and the ease with which the content may be accessed. The content can be shared. The more public the content, the greater the scope of serving terrorist content ads.

Improvements: But that could exclude content on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Hall said in a briefing note. After testing the new law against Islamic State channels, Hall is now proposing amendments to the bill’s wording.

The hole: Hall tested the new powers with a Telegram feature called joinlinks, which allows users to invite people into private chats. IS uses private channels, but public channels can be browsed to find coordinates with private channels. So is the join public or private? Under the OSB’s current wording, Hall said these joints may fall outside the OSB’s definition of “public content,” which is “too narrow and playable.” Four changes in Article 203 should eliminate this risk, he said. You can read those suggested improvements from the full report here.

ICO Rise: Law firm Bird & Bird was appointed James Moss As a partner in its privacy and data protection practice in London. James joins from the Information Commissioner’s Office, where he was the Legal Director of Regulatory Enforcement.

Brussels Expansion: The Tony Blair Institute is setting up a Brussels office that will include a technology policy adviser to work with other think tanks and EU institutions. He will be the director of the office Seamus Jefferson. The new technology policy adviser will be announced next week.

Technology Representative: A new “technology messenger” is being sent to the Indo-Pacific region to spread news of Britain’s interests in science and technology, Foreign Secretary James Cleverley has announced. In the year A similar move followed in 2020 when Joe White was sent to San Francisco to become Britain’s technology envoy to the US.

Park is on. There is no word yet on the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology minister in the House of Lords, but a government official has told us that Theresa May’s special adviser, Stephen Parkinson, is set to go ahead and attack the government. The Online Security Bill in the Lords is pending Royal Assent.

Hancock Information: Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages are the talk of Westminster and now the ICO has weighed in on the Telegraph’s “lock files”. The newspaper said the 100,000 messages Hancock sent as health secretary were the biggest leak of government data since the expenses scandal. But have any data regulations been breached? There is freedom for journalism, especially journalism in the public interest. “At this stage we are not treating this as an ICO issue,” the spokesperson said.

But but: The story “raises questions about the use of official information by outgoing members of the government, which must be retained and later considered by organizations such as the Cabinet Office,” the spokesman added.

Double standards? In addition, it again highlights the fact that many service providers are phasing out encrypted messaging services, using WhatsApp instead of email for government work.

Be more. Insider reports that Mark Zuckerberg is making structural changes at Facebook to resemble Instagram.

The robot will now see you: AI robots are better at selecting organs for surgery than surgeons, The Telegraph reports.

**Message from Google: Yoga. Djing Engineering. Unicorns. Online family safety experts say that when asked about life online, three out of four children use the Internet to learn about things they don’t learn in real life. But it’s not easy for us adults to know every app out there. To help, Google’s Family Link app lets parents review, block or approve each new download their kids request, as well as see how much time they’re spending. It includes parental controls for YouTube and the YouTube Kids app, so parents know their kids are watching age-appropriate content, whether it’s cartoons or science experiments. Learn more about Google tools to keep families safe online.**