Coronavirus: When and how are pubs allowed to open? bbc.in/3mbKJuC

As you probably know I detest the sale of personal details for datamining purposes, 'semi' anonymised or otherwise, and in common with a vast number of people I have an inherent distrust of any Government that includes Dominic...Coronavirus: When and how are pubs allowed to open? bbc.in/3mbKJuC

As you probably know I detest the sale of personal details for datamining purposes, 'semi' anonymised or otherwise, and in common with a vast number of people I have an inherent distrust of any Government that includes Dominic Cummings (he is so detrimental to public trust that there was a study recently published in The Lancet specifically about the ‘Cummings Effect’ (bit.ly/3dY8lQn) - “many scientists spoke out about the effect of Cummings' actions and the UK Government's defence of Cummings in undermining essential public health messaging”. And yet still he keeps his job.)

As your #1 Beach Correspondent and therefore a very serious journalist I feel it is my responsibility to investigate pubs in depth and often so this part of a BBC/Government article hidden in the business section dated 22nd October 2020 about the current rules is a revelation (bbc.in/3mbKJuC):

“What contact details do I have to provide?

UK pub and hospitality bodies have published guidance for bars and restaurants on how to operate contact tracing:

• Contact details only need to be taken from one person in a group
• The details must be kept for 21 days
• Customers only need to give their name and phone number. Owners should note when they arrive and how long they stay
• Data can be taken in any way - paper, online or during a phone booking”

So I can book for a table of six and provide BeachPeople’s non-geographic 0845 number and my name (or ideally the Club’s name) on a folded piece of paper to the pub’s GM and the rest of you can remain anonymous especially if you leave your phone at home (or take the SIM or battery out) and chose to pay in cash. The only part of the puzzle is whether publicans are then obliged to forward that data to Google via Dominic Cummings’ pension scheme – having spoken to a few GMs they say no, tho the QR scan approach has some really scathing articles written about the dodgy data protection practices of the third parties who provide it (yhoo.it/34iZZiV).

The key takeaway is if you have to hand over data, make sure it's so decoupled from you that it's useless for any other purpose than tracing covid.

Avoid QR codes or anything that needs your phone to be involved, book under a group name, pay in cash and ideally leave your phone at home to avoid being part of one of the biggest private data grabs in modern history.

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