Apologies (yet again), I seem to have a spurt in getting the notes out quickly, followed by a delay so that they become almost useless – except as a historic record – by getting them out “just in time”!!!
Anyway thanks to Jim for the photo above, one of the best and shows we manage to have a bit of fun! Apologies from Jonathan, Margaret, Barbara, Christine and Owen – who were unable to join us.
I’m pleased to be able to report that Fred and I finally managed to hook-up and have a chat about connecting to Signal, and I did manage to reply to Phil about his message on sending a post to this site. So, it’s not been a complete lack of activity. The other thing has been the stylistic changes to the website that I mentioned at the meeting. These have now moved on again, and I’ll talk about that this afternoon, coupled with a demo of accessing the website, as it’s apparent a couple of you have not managed to login.
So what did we discuss. I went through a number of links which I’ve put on Flipboard – I’ll highlight some of them. The cookie pop-up problem brought to our attention by Owen – which we’ll return to this afternoon as well.
The sharing of patient data by NHS England caused some discussion – it appears now that this does not effect us in Wales – they’ve put off the implementation date now to September 1st. This led on to a discussion on Patient Records in general and the workings of the Patient Information System in Wales – perhaps not working as well as it should with many disparate GP systems not working closely with any centralised system. Also noted that you are entitled to get a printout of your Patient Record, but the practice is also entitled to ask you for an administrative charge in providing it. Then we diverged into discussing Lateral Flow Tests, and I described how I’d been able to receive the test kits within 24hours from a website. It’s unlclear whether we (in Wales) are able to upload the results due to our NHS numbers not being in the same format as the English ones – and the same problem arises with the vaccination passports now being launched in England as an app. In wales there will be a website you can register your vaccination history, etc.
The welcome news that one of our favourite websites – Have I been pwned? – has gone open-source, and will now benefit from additional data from the FBI. A suggestion that there are a number of privacy settings we should check/change on Facebook was highlighted, and a suggestion that it was now time to ditch Google Chrome – because of privacy considerations. It’s been announced that Google Photos now has additional editing facilities on iOS devices, and I suggested that those with Android phones might have a look and report back, to advise us what iPhone users might hope to expect. We also discussed the major internet outage that had occurred, and why it had come about. Finally, I shared a few links (all on Flipboard) of what Apple announced at its Developers Conference – a lot on privacy, security and health features on phones, tablets and in the Safari browser.
So what did you have to say?
Ann asked about Two factor Authentication, and how it worked – especially with the banks. I explained that the addition of a metric such as FaceID or TouchID (both Apple trademarks) the banks were ensuring much better that the person using their apps were the actual customers. The organisation trusts the device provider to ensure that the person is who they are through their personal credentials – face or fingerprint. If working on a browser they will challenge you to provide a code they send to the registered device they have for you. This is obviously not as secure – remember my SIM swap scam episode of 2019. The other way that the organisation you’re connecting to can ensure it’s you they’re providing access to is by using an Authenticator app, that sends a code to your phone that you then type into the box in your browser. Hence two-factor – the code (or Identity features) on a device different from the browser.
Sianed advised us of the Census scam that had been going the rounds.
John told us about an interesting photography programme he’d been watching – the Great British Photography Challenge – now available on iPlayer.
Renee advised us that the NHS app discussed on the TV was not available in Wales.
Phil had a Victor Meldrew moment and lamented the lack of telephone numbers on websites that made it almost impossible to connect to a person to discuss an issue. Fred suggested keeping a list of CEOs to address complaints to. Someone else suggested using the Companies House website – a good idea!! Someone then recounted the recent case where a worldwide undercover operation had revealed criminals.
Jim wondered whether everyone was having as many Signal updates as he was, and on all devices – we are, and all is OK!!!
Don told us about his garden camera, and advised us about the Cardiff Citizen Surveys – and the update to the Local Development Plan.
David H was pleased to announce that his CAD system was now working and enquired about whether there were any recommendations about property contents only insurance. I’ve also noted that there was discussion on harvesting data from browser searches, and a comment “Zoom and the Arts” – but I have no idea what either of these referred to!!!
Paul had some issues with Google accounts (again I can’t remember what these were); and advised that he had tried out Reader View (as discussed at the previous meeting).
Mike was having problems with the volume on his equipment and I hope the advice we provided has helped in some way.
Steve said he’d setup ICE and enquired about the website What 3 Words to provide exact locations. We experimented!!!
