We have heard a great deal about the new NHS tracking app which is being tested in the Isle of Wight, with a view to rolling it out across the rest of Britain. It has been designed to trace and track symptoms of coronavirus via our smartphones. All well and good, right? Sadly not. As things stand, I have no intention whatsoever of downloading and using the app. Here’s why.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) firm hired by Dominic Cummings to help with the 2016 Vote Leave campaign has been awarded seven government contracts in 18 months. The man who runs the company is called Marc Warner. Warner has admitted sitting in on scientific advisory group on emergencies (SAGE) meetings, along with Cummings.
By a happy coincidence, Marc, also worked closely with Cummings at Vote Leave, won a £250 million contract when Boris Johnson appointed Cummings his chief advisor. His company Faculty has been appointed, with no tendering process, to develop the app.
Interestingly, Warner’s brother Ben is a ‘data scientist’ who also worked with Cummings at Vote Leave. He now advises the government. I don’t know about you, but I smell a dirty great rat.
I do not normally subscribe to conspiracy theories, not least when there is no evidence to support them. But here I see a smoking gun. The very people who lied and cheated their way to victory in the 2016 EU referendum, who are now in firmly installed at the highest levels of government, now want our data. In my view, they cannot be trusted.
For these reasons alone, I will not sign up to the government’s new tracking app. Cummings is the most dangerous man in politics. He has more influence than most elected officials in the land, conceivably more than the prime minister himself. I do not want Cummings, or any of his associates, politicians or not, to have access to any of my private data.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the app will take “full consideration” of privacy concerns. So will I. I won’t be downloading it until I am convinced that Cummings and his associates are nowhere near it. Attending SAGE meetings more than suggests they are.
