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Content Type: News & Analysis
Governments weaponising data against people is one of the top themes of 2025. In this latest example, tax agency uses post-9/11 era travel surveillance to administer tax benefits, and to wrongly accuse people of fraud.The UK Government has paused cuts to parents’ child benefits after it was revealed that one of its surveillance practices had made numerous mistakes.Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HRMC), the UK tax agency, had suspended 23,500 payments to nearly 350 families, erroneously…
Content Type: Long Read
Introduction
In response to the unprecedented social, economic, and public health threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Bank financed at least 232 "Covid-19 Response" projects. The projects were implemented across countries the World Bank classifies as middle and low-income.
This article will focus on eight (8) Covid-19 Response projects which sought to deliver social assistance to individuals and families on a "non-contributory" basis (this means that the intended beneficiaries…
Content Type: News & Analysis
This week International Health Day was marked amidst a global pandemic which has impacted every region in the world. And it gives us a chance to reflect on how tech companies, governments, and international agencies are responding to Covid-19 through the use of data and tech.
All of them have been announcing measures to help contain or respond to the spread of the virus; but too many allow for unprecedented levels of data exploitation with unclear benefits, and raising so many red flags…