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In a report released in December 2018, the UK's National Audit Office examined the management of information and immigrant casework at the Home Office that led to the refusal of services, detention, and removal of Commonwealth citizens who came to the UK and were granted indefinite leave to remain

In a November 2018 report based on a year's study of the use of data scores, Data Justice Lab provided a comprehensive look at the use of data-driven citizen scoring in government, particularly focusing on six case studies drawn from local councils in the UK. The report noted there is no systematic

In November 2018, worried American parents wishing to check out prospective babysitters and dissatisfied with criminal background checks began paying $24.99 for a scan from the online service Predictim, which claimed to use "advanced artificial intelligence" to offer an automated risk rating

In November 2018 reports emerged that immigrants heading north from Central America to the US border are more and more often ensuring they are accompanied by children because "family units" are known to be less likely to be deported, at least temporarily, and smugglers charge less than half as much

In November 2018, researchers at Sweden's University of Lund, the US's Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the UK's Oxford University announced that in August the US State Department had begun using a software program they had designed that uses AI to find the best match for a refugee's needs

In November 2016 the UK Information Commissioner's Office issued an enforcement notice against London's Metropolitan Police, finding that there had been multiple and serious breaches of data protection law in the organisation's use of the Gangs Violence Matrix, which it had operated since 2012. The

As early as 2008, the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE began helping Venezuela develop a system similar to the identity system used in China to track social, political, and economic behaviour. By 2018, Venezuela was rolling out its "carnet de la patria", a smart-card "fatherland" ID card that

After an 18-month investigation involving interviews with 160 life insurance companies, in January 2019 New York Financial Services, the state's top financial regulator, announced it would allow life insurers to use data from social media and other non-traditional sources to set premium rates for

A study published in February 2019 found that 95% of the predictive accuracy for an individual can be achieved solely by analysing their social ties; the person's data is not needed. Given as few as eight or nine of an individual's contacts, it should be possible to profile the individual even if

A study published in January 2019 found that a form of facial recognition technology that interprets emotions in facial expressions assigns more negative emotions to black men's faces than white men's faces. The problem is the latest in a series of ways that facial recognition has failed for non

In 2018, technology companies and medical providers were experimenting with machine learning and AI to mine health records and online posts to identify patterns linked to suicide, hoping to be able to predict, and therefore prevent, such attempts. On the academic side, a pilot programme conducted by

In December 2018, Facebook provided an update on the civil rights audit it asked civil rights leader Laura Murphy to undertake in May. Based on advice Murphy culled from 90 civil society organisations, Facebook said it had expanded its policy prohibiting voter suppression, updated its policy to ban

In December 2018 Walmart was granted a patent for a new listening system for capturing and analysing sounds in shopping facilities. The system would be able to compare rustling shopping bags and cash register beeps to detect theft, monitor employee interactions with customers, and even listen to

The pregnancy apps many women were using in December 2018 proved to be incapable of handling miscarriages, even though up to 20% of all known pregnancies end this way. There are only two choices: allow the apps to continue sending alerts celebrating the pregnancy's progress or delete the pregnancy

In February 2019, the World Food Programme, a United Nations aid agency, announced a five-year, $45 million partnership with the data analytics company Palantir. WFP, the world's largest humanitarian organisation focusing on hunger and food security, hoped that Palantir, better known for partnering