Official fibbing/bad stats
WRITTEN ON Thursday, December 10th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Bad stuff, Data nitwittery, Identity, Official fibbing/bad stats, Pertinent Art, Political engagement, Save Time and Money, Transformational Government, We told you so...
In a speech yesterday Michael Wills (whom I dont know myself, but he’s Labour member of Parliament for Swindon North, and a Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice) called for a new, more courteous and respectful dialogue over government’s use of personal data. IdealGovernment has wanted this for years. But – as he […]
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WRITTEN ON Friday, September 4th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, Political engagement, We told you so..., What do we want?
Having dumped controversial former chief executive Wally O’Dell in 2005Diebold has now finally dumped its e-voting unit. This was a deeply unpleasant history, and the new buyer Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is far from Ideal.
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WRITTEN ON Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, We told you so..., What do we want?
Bloody marvellous. When the database state + Experian connive to wreck your life, there’s no comeback! So rules Bill Blair (brother of the devout war-mongerer himself) in a High Court judgment, reported by El Reg: An entrepreneur whose fledgling business was ruined by a false entry in a court database has had his claim for […]
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WRITTEN ON Monday, August 3rd, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, We told you so..., What do we want?
It seems the mechanised state is slanderous (or libellous): Criminal Records Bureau errors lead to hundreds being branded criminals More than 1,500 people have been wrongly branded as criminals or mistakenly given a clean record by the government agency set up to vet those workin g with children, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. By Christopher […]
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WRITTEN ON Monday, July 20th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, What do we want?
More criminologists have pointed out the poor statistical analysis behind the Home Office’s DNA database plans, says The Guardian: “Flawed scientific thinking” in the government’s proposed changes to the DNA database will leave it open to further challenges by the courts, experts have said, in a stark attack on Home Office plans to overhaul the […]
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WRITTEN ON Saturday, July 18th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, We told you so..., What do we want?
Ben “Bad Science” Goldacre has a careful look at the evidence provided to justify DNA database policy by the Jill Dando Institute of Inappropriate Shroudwaving: In fact, this study from the Jill Dando Institute, attached to their consultation paper as an appendix, is possibly the most unclear and badly presented piece of research I have […]
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WRITTEN ON Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Design: Co-creation, Foundation of Trust, Identity, Official fibbing/bad stats, Save Time and Money, Transformational Government, What do we want?
Over at Ctrl-Shift Ive tried to sketch out the impact of VRM (buyer-centric commerce, customer-managed relationships, user-driven identity) on public services: It seems to me the effects of VRM on public services will be of four sorts. It will improve public services. It will cut costs. It will de-tox the “database state”. And it is […]
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WRITTEN ON Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, What do we want?
The database state can be a bit heartless with bereaved parents. This poignant example from the Beeb is far from Ideal: The parents of a girl who died suddenly have received a school letter demanding she improves her attendance. The letter, dated 16 March, said “students must have at least 92% attendance and Megan’s is […]
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WRITTEN ON Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, Transformational Government, What do we want?
There’s some confusion at the D’oH! about who is the servant and who the master: NHS bosses leading the rollout of the Summary Care Record are refusing to take no for an answer from patients who say they want to opt out, Pulse can reveal. GPs in the first wave of the rollout are being […]
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WRITTEN ON Monday, January 26th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, Political engagement, What do we want?
Couple of nuggets in Obama’s weekly address: To lower health care cost, cut medical errors, and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives. Hey! Why dont we sell them NPfIT/CfH? On second thoughts…let’s just see how they go about it. […]
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