Face search company Clearview AI overturns UK privacy fine
- In 2022, Clearview AI was fined more than £7.5m by the information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawfully storing facial images.
- The company offers clients a system where users can upload a photo and it matches this in a database of billions of images it has collected and provides links to where these images appear online.
- Prior to the ICO’s action, now ruled unlawful, France, Italy and Australia have also taken action against the company.
- Clearview succeeded in appealing against the ICO’s fine and enforcement action because it was used solely by law enforcement bodies outside the UK.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
Stalking: New orders aim to better protect victims
- The new stalking orders give the police the ability to set boundaries by implementing specific Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) to stop the escalation of stalking.
- Individuals can be prohibited from contacting the named person on the order, including contact in person, by phone call, letters, emails, messages and social media.
- The order can prohibit the subject from publishing material, or making a reference to already published material, directly or indirectly linked to the victim.
- Further, they can be banned from entering certain areas, such as where the victim works, usual routes taken or where they walk their children to school.
- It allows police officers to access the alleged stalker’s home to conduct risk assessments, or if they have no fixed address, they must attend a police station weekly.
- Richard Pengelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Justice, said that the “new measure will offer protection for victims of stalking from the very start of the investigation”.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
New special school to be built in Belfast to address pressure on places
- The Department of Education has approved a plan to create almost 450 more special school places in Belfast, through the building of a new special school and an expansion of the existing Harberton School.
- Recently, there has been a demand at special schools (25% increase in 10 Belfast special schools).
- The Education Authority (EA) want to build a new special school for 275 young people while creating around 170 additional places in Harberton School. This has been approved by the department.
- Additionally, the EA want to admit young people up to the age of 19, rather than 11 in Harberton. This plan has also now been approved by the department.
- It is estimated that the new special school will not open until 2029 at the earliest, but the EA wants some of the new places available in temporary buildings by September 2024.
- For more, please visit the Belfast Live website.
