Privacy — writing by Peter Bassill
Privacy · page 2 of 4
Personal, family and boardroom privacy, and keeping children safe online. 49 articles
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A curfew you can switch off
The government's midnight social media curfew for 16 and 17-year-olds is a default, not a control — and after 29 years of telling boards the difference, I can't un-see it. Part 1 of a series on what happens when good intentions meet the technical reality of the teenage internet.
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Lessons from the age gate we already built
We don't have to predict how a national age-verification scheme performs. We switched one on last July for pornography, and a year of data is in. Part 6: what the porn age gate actually did — who it stopped, where the traffic went, and the identity honeypot it built along the way
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The browser in the browser
An age check inspects the visitor in front of it. But what if the visitor is a data centre in Frankfurt, streaming the real site back as video to a child in Fife? Part 5: browser-as-a-service, the school-proxy underground, and the bypass I sell as enterprise security.
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The dark routes
Every enforcement idea so far has needed a server to find and block. Tor and i2p are built specifically so there isn't one. Part 4: what "just block the dark web" actually asks for, why it fails, and — the twist parents don't expect — why this is the route I worry about least.
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The federation problem
Enforcement law assumes someone to enforce against — an office, a legal team, revenue to fine. Then there's Mastodon: thousands of servers, many run by one volunteer, in someone else's country. Part 3: what happens to the teen internet rules when there is no company to write to.
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What counts as social media?
The ban list names the platforms parents can already spell. But grooming happens in a chat window inside a children's game. Part 2: why the law regulates brands while the harm follows a function — and how to audit your household by the function instead.
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What would actually work
Six parts on why the plan fails earns one obligation: say what I'd build instead. The finale — a blanket under-18 rule, enforced at the device, attached to the function, with the exceptions designed in. Not perfect; just honest about where the line can actually be held.
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Children and social media in 2026: the conversation now
Revisiting the 2023 post on social media. The platforms have changed. The Online Safety Act has taken effect. Australia banned under-16 social media. The Smartphone Free Childhood movement has changed what is socially possible.
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It wasn't a misdirected email: the NHS Forth Valley breach
The headlines called it an email blunder. It wasn't — a staff member moved a spreadsheet of 150 maternity patients' data to their own personal inbox. Why that distinction matters, where NHS Scotland keeps going wrong, and the controls that actually stop it.
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Everyone in the shop is a suspect
Sainsbury's is tripling its Facewatch facial recognition, scanning every shopper's face against a private watchlist to catch a few. It's biometric special-category data, the ICO's own guidance calls it the hardest case to justify, and 'it works' is not the same as 'it's lawful.'
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School edtech in 2026: the lay of the land
Updating the 2023 post on school accounts and edtech, three years and one AI cycle later. What schools collect now, what the regulator has done, and the new category that did not exist in 2023 — AI tutors, AI markers, AI safeguarding tools.
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Least certain exactly where it has to decide: the Home Office age guesser
A facial age-estimation system whose error margin is widest at the one line it exists to draw is not a decision aid. Setting the immigration politics aside, it fails on accuracy and privacy alone.
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The digital footprint we create for children, three years on
Revisiting the 2023 post on children's digital footprints, with what has actually changed by 2026 — the Children's Code enforcement, generative AI making the training-set argument operational, and Smartphone Free Childhood moving the position to the mainstream.
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How to Use Tor: A Practical Guide to Anonymous Browsing
Install, configure and use the Tor Browser on Linux and Windows with bridges, security levels and operational discipline.
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How to Use I2P: A Practical Guide to the Invisible Internet
Install and configure the I2P router on Ubuntu, access eepsites, and understand how I2P differs from Tor.