Miss Liverpool City Region 2018 helps launch the 'Blackout' sale event

ON Thursday, 24 May 2018, House of Fraser launched its new 'BlackOut' promotion, nationwide, offering discounts across all its departments. There are hundreds of fashion, home, beauty and electrical brands featured within the House of Fraser sale. On the Wirral, the new Miss Liverpool City Region, Abigail Foster, visited the Birkenhead store, to find out more about this launch. It was her 1st official appointment, as the retailer was 1 of the sponsors and as a result Abigail had a fantastic time looking at the wide range of designer brands on offer. She was even treated to a make over, thanks to the Clinique Team, using some of the wide range of beauty and makeup products that are currently on offer at the store.

What is GDPR and will it affect the media?

WHAT is GDPR and as Brexit will formally separate the UK from EU law makers, why are we concerned? Also what effect will this have on the media industry? GDPR comes into effect on 25 May 2018, including in the UK regardless of its decision to leave the EU. This law will impact every organisation which holds or processes personal data, online and offline.

On paper following a string of scandals Facebook is 1 of the many social media firms who are rolling out greater privacy controls for users as a result, but within hours of the GDPR, activists had started to file legal cases agenised the likes of Google Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. This lead to quite a few major websites having major problems at the start of the weekend. But what is this new law? In short the GDPR on paper gives people more control over personal data  an organisation or business holds on you. 

This means personal data must be:-

1. All data held on you must be processed lawfully, fairly and transparently.

2. Data must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for processing.

3. All personal data must be kept up to date.

4. The data must be kept only as long as is necessary for processing in a format that the data subject (you) can be identified in.

5. The data must be processed in a manner that ensures its security.

6. Data can only be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes.

Many international firms are well behind the UK, including many within the EU, like in France and Germany, who say lots of their businesses will not meet the deadline. The biggest problem is, that no one quite knows what the impact of this strengthening data rules will have. A major issue will be enforcing the rules outside the EU and UK, as this is a non-jurisdictional law, so affects every one in the world who deals with the EU and even once the UK leaves, it will still affect organisations, including charities who work or deal with UK clients or users.

In the UK, the Government has said that exemptions to some of the rules will apply to journalists, scientific researchers and the bodies tasked with catching drug cheats in sport, risk-pricing analysis, along with firms who process data looking at terrorism and/or money laundering, who will all be shielded in part from the GDPR legislation, along with a few other sectors.

So how will this affect the press?   Art. 85 GDPR Processing and freedom of expression and information, is meant to put in a form of protection for the media...  We are also told that the Data Protection Bill will safeguard a journalists “freedom of expression and ability to expose wrongdoing,” but protections for journalists under the new legislation are not clear.

Art. 85 states that:-

1.  Member States shall by law reconcile the right to the protection of personal data pursuant to this Regulation with the right to freedom of expression and information, including processing for journalistic purposes and the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression.

2. For processing carried out for journalistic purposes or the purpose of academic artistic or literary expression, Member States shall provide for exemptions or derogations from Chapter II (principles), Chapter III (rights of the data subject), Chapter IV (controller and processor), Chapter V (transfer of personal data to third countries or international organisations), Chapter VI (independent supervisory authorities), Chapter VII (cooperation and consistency) and Chapter IX (specific data processing situations) if they are necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the freedom of expression and information.

3. Each Member State shall notify to the Commission the provisions of its law which it has adopted pursuant to paragraph 2 and, without delay, any subsequent amendment law or amendment affecting them.

4. Suitable Recitals - (153) Processing of personal data solely for journalistic purposes or for the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression.

This all sounds good, as if it is done correctly it should not give people the right to getting articles or programmes changed or deleted after publication or 1st broadcast, just because as they don't like it or an alternative route failed defamation claimants to get items removed and seek compensation.  The for many within the UK media, the worry is that the Information Commissioner (ICO) could soon become a 'de facto state' regulator of the media, via the new legislation. 

But other areas of the media business will still be affected, from mailing lists to how subscriptions are dealt with.  Even how adverts and press releases are sent out.  Even your phone book and text message are affected by the GDPR legislation.

For example, how do you dispose of hard copy data?  Do you shared it?  How big is the print on the shredded paper and how big are the cuts?  Do you....

Will this good intentioned legislation turn into a yet another cookie law mess?  How many websites run cookie and tracking warnings?  Lets see what happens as that is all we can do at this point.  Lets hope we do not destroy our freedom in the disguise of protection...  We might not be as strict as the likes of China, but the UK's push for compulsory online age verification and the new GDPR legislation will put even more strain on our freedoms and business.  Shockingly, as with the Cookie Law, most Brits unaware of delayed age-verification law, that is due to come into force later this year and even more shocking is many do not understand or even know what the GDPR legislation is or what the age-verification law is and what it affects!  All 3, cookie, age and GDPR, are all well meaning and on paper, are extremely good ideas, but in reality, just as with the Cookie Law, both the UK's age-verification law and the EU's GDPR legislation are being seen as see as akin to using a weapon of mass destruction to swat a fly.  But unlike the UK's  age-verification law, that will only affect the UK, the EU's GDPR, has even more reach and with Britain pulling out of the EU, it is increasingly worrying, as we will have no say in any future changes.  Already, just as with the UK's age-verification law, the GDPR already looking like it will be a fundamentally flawed regulation, being too generic and opening up the floodgates for scams!  Instead of making things safer, both the UK's age-verification law, the GDPR might make things even more dangerous online and offline!

Please send us your views to:- News24@SouthportReporter.com and let us know what you think about the issues raised in this report.

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals using artificial intelligence to provide pioneering treatment for patients

THE Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust is using ground breaking methods such as artificial intelligence (AI) to help improve care for heart attack patients. In a pioneering pilot project, the Trust is using artificial intelligence, to help doctors make decisions about a patient's care by rapidly accessing published data, evidence and guidance and making recommendations tailored to individual patient's medical needs. This provides patients with the most effective treatment, helping them get better quicker.

The software is being trialled during Summer 2018 on the acute cardiac unit at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and will help doctors decide the best treatment for patients to reduce their risk of a recurring heart attack.

Dr Mike Fisher, consultant cardiologist and chief clinical information Officer at the Trust said:- "Similar to a 'sat-nav' which helps a driver navigate the roads, the AI software helps clinicians navigate vast amounts of information to find the right route to recovery for the patient. This will help us to provide the treatment that is most effective in meeting an individual patient's medical needs according to established guidelines. For the patient this means they have the best chance of getting better quicker."

As a Global Digital Exemplar, the Trust is pioneering a number of IT projects for the NHS and is working with Deontics, an award winning health technology company on this innovative AI pilot.

Guy Wood-Gush, CEO of Deontics, added:- "It is very exciting to be working with the Trust on realising the possibilities of using AI to enhance clinical treatment decisions using Deontics technology. We have shown how our healthcare AI technology can increase patient safety, reduce unnecessary clinical variation, and deliver high quality; cost-effective care and we look forward to bringing these benefits to patients in Liverpool."

David Walliker, chief information Officer at the Trust added:- "Deontics is another element of the Trust's award winning Digital Liverpool Programme. If successful it is hoped that Deontics could be used in a number of areas across the Hospital to provide high quality care for a range of serious conditions."