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Alec is a technologist, writer & security consultant who has worked in host and network security for more than 30 years, with 25 of those in industry.
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OFCOM update: so apparently the embargoed press-release email was circulated to one (more?) of their general discussion maillists, which I feel symbolic of their approach towards security

2026-02-19 04:01:49

Highlights are as follows:


  • they will be “fast-tracking” their decision to force apps and sites (“tech firms”, of course, because all apps and sites are “tech firms”) bringing the decision forward
  • their proposal will be that everyone be forced to use fuzzy-image-matching, which they dress up as “perceptual-” or “hash-matching”, but it’s an old tech wrapped up in legal agreements with inadequate oversight
  • they frame this as a means to combat non-consensual deep-fakes, even though those are not currently a large part of the extant “hash databases” in use by the likes of Meta, which are geared at CSAM and Terrorism
  • management of such databases, and likewise logging of the queries where those databases are offered as an “outsource service” — clearly this is where the money will be made — both lead to major security issues; this is not mentioned
  • they will decide in May and expect other legalities to be sorted by “this summer”

HEADSUP: Ofcom *tonight* to announce demand for apps, websites to deploy “hash matching” (i.e. client-side scanning, fuzzy matching) of uploaded images “to protect children”

2026-02-19 01:57:25

privacy impact: logfiles of fuzzy-matching hash databases become long-term surveillance pipeline to retrospectively track whistleblower leak images, Snowden 2.0, etc; plus enabling censorship of arbitrary content.

WATCH THIS SPACE; ETA 2230H LONDON.

Thought for the day: if there is a UK under-16 social media ban, the party which most appeals to 16-year-olds “out of the starting gate” will win the next election

2026-02-16 20:35:20

There will be a voter demographic who will suddenly have to make a first time choice re: who to vote for, having also immersed themselves for the first time in social media over the previous 11 months.

The party that dominates TikTok will win their votes.

Currently, that’s ReformUK.


The status quo can’t continue, and without real change the pressure for an under?16 social media ban will only increase.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-no-platform-gets-a-free-pass-government-takes-action-to-keep-children-safe-online

UK Government Press Release: “the same people who demanded & shaped the online safety act now want to do it all over again”

2026-02-16 15:54:21

Andy Burrows, Molly Rose, formerly NSPCC, wants it bigger, harder, stronger:

“…the Prime Minister must now go further. Sir Keir Starmer should commit to a new Online Safety Act that strengthens regulation and that makes clear that product safety and children’s wellbeing is the cost of doing business in the UK.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-no-platform-gets-a-free-pass-government-takes-action-to-keep-children-safe-online

UK Government: “children deserve social isolation and pervasive surveillance to prepare them for their future lives”

2026-02-16 13:09:18

“We are determined to give children the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future at time of rapid technological change.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-no-platform-gets-a-free-pass-government-takes-action-to-keep-children-safe-online

UK Government: “platforms must retain activity data pertinent to dead children, unless it’s not pertinent to their death” | …but how will they know beforehand?

2026-02-16 13:05:58

Like “legal but harmful” will we have a classification of data that is “potentially suicide-adjacent?”

“We will also strengthen protections for families facing the most devastating circumstances, by ensuring that vital data following a child’s death is preserved before it can be deleted, except in cases where online activity is clearly not relevant to the death”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-no-platform-gets-a-free-pass-government-takes-action-to-keep-children-safe-online