mjr
@mjr@infosec.pub
- Comment on Better Connected: tap-and-go travel across trains, trams and buses announced in government's new transport strategy 1 week ago:
Lovely. When? There are still loads of expensive uncapped bus services in England. Any plans to finish the last change, or just keep starting more changes and worsen regional inequalities?
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
If they don’t want to insure possessions left in vans, they should exclude them explicitly. Denying payouts by relying on a requirement that the theft is violent is sneaky and surely should be regarded as an unfair term in a consumer contract, if not some sort of con or fraud.
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
If it has to be specified in the contracts, the insurer clearly isn’t confident that it’s common knowledge, so why are you?
Also, wasn’t there something in the news recently about how long it would take to read all the contracts needed for basic life, and it’s weeks each year. These companies are doing “paperwork snowstorm attacks” on our lives.
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
Nice victim-blaming there. Hope it never haunts you.
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
Don’t be daft. Have you seen what people leave in their cars? I’ve left bikes in a car overnight, but don’t think I would in Clapham.
The AA want you to blame the victim. I blame the thieves, including the AA taking money for a service they put weasel clauses in.
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
Insurance varies. My insurer requires bikes be locked to an anchor (so not loose in a van!) But it doesn’t specify a nonsense lock branding symbol like “sold secure”. It sounds like their policy did cover bikes loose in a van, but had this nasty “violent” clause that they’ve used to deny liability.
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
but being morally right and the insurance company being morally wrong won’t lead to a payout if they can prove you didn’t secure your property in a manner consistent with the insurance policy.
Note that the security or quality of the lock was apparently not questioned. It seems to have been mainly that the theft wasn’t violent enough to the locked door.
There’s a side mention of the bikes not being specified as high value items, but that would probably have limited the payout, not denied it entirely.
- Comment on British cyclist refused £15k payout because thieves ‘weren’t violent enough’ 1 week ago:
And is anyone surprised that Automobile Association Insurance Services avoided paying out for stolen bikes?
- Comment on Customers of three UK banks report being able to see other people’s accounts on app 4 weeks ago:
Banks using less secure IT than their customers but having tons of annoying security theatre? Oh, at least 30 years.
- Comment on Customers of three UK banks report being able to see other people’s accounts on app 4 weeks ago:
Copilot?
- Comment on Customers of three UK banks report being able to see other people’s accounts on app 4 weeks ago:
Yep, because one of your programmers used it to start sniffing glue, it seems!
- Comment on Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’ 4 weeks ago:
- Comment on Radio ear-pieces linked to hearing problems in UK police officers 5 weeks ago:
Well, yes, if it’s in-ear, you have to be really careful with the volume, and they’re more annoying to remove and take a break than headphones or bone conductors. I wonder if they’ll do the more accurate tests, or if they’ll fear that could open the door to injury compensation claims.
- Comment on BBC CENSOR “Free Palestine” At BAFTAs, Racial Slurs Allowed 1 month ago:
Baftas 2026: BBC apologises for not editing out racial slur shouted by guest with Tourette’s - BBC News – www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6edwg06n1o
Some are unhappy with how weak the apology is.
- Comment on Andrew charged taxpayers for massage when envoy, claim ex-civil servants 1 month ago:
What were the rules when he did so? Was this mere arrogance and poor taste, or was it effectively stealing from the expenses account?
- Comment on I’m putting tech firms on notice: deal with the appalling abuse of women online – or we will deal with you 1 month ago:
Take it off the money they hold in or try to transfer out of the UK, same as some other criminal enterprises. They sell ads and subs here.
- Comment on I’m putting tech firms on notice: deal with the appalling abuse of women online – or we will deal with you 1 month ago:
Actually charge them the threatened £ millions or percentage in the online safety act that closed, exiled or scared so many small forums, perhaps?
- Comment on Local reporter ‘shocked’ over picture of his face on punchbag at UK town hall 1 month ago:
Far more likely to find the prime minister’s face there than some local journalist’s!
- Comment on Local reporter ‘shocked’ over picture of his face on punchbag at UK town hall 1 month ago:
For what?
- Comment on Lobbying firm co-founded by Mandelson on brink of collapse 1 month ago:
Global Counsel? Pedo counsel, more like!
There should be a review of all government contracts with their clients or their involvement, including Palantir.
- Comment on Peter Mandelson Sold Off Britain to the Super-Rich. He’s Not the Only One 1 month ago:
The deal is probably described in some media response from Network Rail or Transport for London. Global Counsel won’t be mentioned. I guess Chase Bank is part of JP Morgan still.
- Comment on Oatly banned from using word ‘milk’ to market plant-based products in UK 1 month ago:
Only if it stays the hell away from my coffee! 🤮
- Comment on Peter Mandelson Sold Off Britain to the Super-Rich. He’s Not the Only One 1 month ago:
Through lobbying firm Global Counsel, Mandelson sold what really matters in modern Britain – access. Global Counsel’s client list reads like a directory of corporate power: JP Morgan, Accenture, Palantir, Shell, Nestlé, Anglo American.
And the government will be reassessing those companies’ contracts Real Soon Now.
- Comment on Alton Towers bans people with anxiety from using disability pass 2 months ago:
Merlin run lots of stuff, including Sealife and Warwick Castle. I’ll avoid the lot.
- Comment on Alton Towers bans people with anxiety from using disability pass 2 months ago:
So Merlin Entertainment basically thinks it knows better than doctors, some disabilities aren’t real and it’s fine to make people with severe anxiety stand in line until they suffer an attack. Lovely(!) Somewhere mistreating people with mental health issues is not a place I’ll go for fun.
- Comment on Facial recognition error: Customer misidentified by Sainsbury's 2 months ago:
And the dataset is prbably racist, although in the reported case, it sounds like good old unreliable cross-race recognition by humans, with the evil eye pinging because it spotted someone and the store staff then telling the wrong person to naff off. It seems like a process or training failure if they don’t ask the evil eye to confirm they’ve got the person it flagged before upsetting them.
- Comment on Coastal road swept away into the sea in Devon 2 months ago:
Because that’s a freshwater lake on the inland side with interesting wildlife. Letting the sea in is a big call.
- Comment on 'It is jaw-dropping': Ian Hislop on Mandelson and Epstein 2 months ago:
“there was no justification, knowing what he knew, for appointing him as ambassador” (03:22)
I disgree with Ian Hislop there. The justification was pretty obvious: appoint a friend of Jeffrey to work with the friend of Jeffrey that is US president and maybe spare us some of Trump’s strange attacks. It’s not a great justification and probably shouldn’t have been enough, though. The way his appointment insults Epstein’s victims should have been enough to stop it, and the risk of it failing like it has was just a cherry on the cake.
- Comment on The BBC’s proposal to switch off Freeview is a threat to its universal service | Letter 2 months ago:
Except they don’t, which is why they’re losing ground. Also, the BBC mission is “to serve all audiences” and “inform, educate and entertain” and not simply to give people whatever junk TV gets the biggest audiences: that’s more ITV/STV and 5.
- Comment on The BBC’s proposal to switch off Freeview is a threat to its universal service | Letter 2 months ago:
Why would the BBC, which believes in the benefit of its output, suggest closing itself?
It won’t, but if the primary aim of change is to save money, then it’s the logical conclusion of that argument. This is proof by absurdity that the argument is flawed.
Right, I’m sure the BBC advertising iPlayer is why YouTube is now the second-most-watched “broadcaster” in the UK.
It’s not the whole reason, but it is part of it. The public have been told repeatedly by Auntie that being tracked and studied is fine.
This change in habits has been gradual but inexorable. The reason for it is obvious: because streaming at any convenient time is more convenient than being locked into a broadcaster’s schedule.
But we’re not locked into a broadcaster’s schedule! We have recording devices that now perfectly display any broadcast programme at a later time of our choosing. Maybe you didn’t realise that and I can’t blame you: the BBC haven’t been advertising it regularly for the last 15+ years.
The biggest benefit of streaming is that you can watch things that haven’t been broadcast or that your device didn’t store, but the cost of that is your privacy.
Your privacy objection is bogus. Here is the relevant section of the privacy policy.
That’s not the privacy policy, but it does link to it. It’s a misleading partial summary of some of it. If you click through to the full policy, you’ll find the stuff I quoted.
