Exhibition: Manchester (and online) “Our Lives, Our Privacy” c/o ICO

This a.m. I heard on BBC R4 Today 07.41.30... news (and interesting discussion) -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0029rg4

- of an exhibition in Manchester that may be of interest, if you're local, but it is also accessible online:

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2025/04/come-and-visit-manchester-s-latest-exhibition-our-lives-our-privacy-to-celebrate-the-ico-s-40th-anniversary/

Our Lives, Our Privacy

'A digital exhibition featuring 40 items that tells the tale of how privacy has been at the centre of some of the biggest events and milestones we remember over the past four decades was launched last Autumn, but now a physical exhibition has come to Manchester. 

From 2 April to 30 June, we will be displaying the exhibition at Manchester Central Library in the first-floor exhibition space. Members of the public are welcome to pop in and see the items that have shaped our lives and our privacy.  

 

The ‘Our Lives, Our Privacy’ exhibition highlights poignant events in history including the launch of social media, the News of the World phone hacking scandal and the Covid 19 pandemic to name a few. It also looks at technological advancements like smart devices and raising questions about the future, including how accurate the episodes of ‘Black Mirror’ really are.'

==== Previously:

Jones, P. (1996) Humans, Information, and Science, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24(3),591-598.
https://www.academia.edu/3555654/Humans_information_and_science

Jones, P. (1996) An overarching theory of health communication? Health Informatics Journal,2,1,28-34.

Jones, P. (2004) Viewpoint: Can informatics and holistic multidisciplinary care be harmonised? British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Information Management, 21, 6, 17-18.

Fryer, Jon. “Information Literacies – Learning, to Thrive in a Digital Age” IRMS Bulletin 230 (2022): 16-21.

As listed in the bibliography in this blog's sidebar.

I visited Manchester Central Library about two weeks ago, it is quite a building and full of public, cultural, and local information resources. Must do likewise in Liverpool.

NHS data breaches: the 'cogeography' of who and where?

Computing this past week featured an item (extract below with link) -

Five more NHS trusts involved in serious data breaches
Written by Tom Young
Computing, 17 Jul 2009

Privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has found five more NHS organisations in breach of the Data Protection Act.
The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust reported the loss of an unencrypted CD initially thought to contain medical treatment details of 20,000 patients from the hospital’s cardiology department.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust reported the theft of an unencrypted memory stick containing 143 patient details including sensitive medical information.
And Epsom and St Helier University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been storing hospital records insecurely for nearly two years following data being transferred between hospitals. ...

Straight away reading this I thought of my previous post about cogeography and commented accordingly (which registered twice - oops!). In light of the previous post here's that comment with some additions....
Such events merely (without trivializing) highlight the human capacity to ERR big(gish) time. Is it not possible for tech to help? If info systems through to mobile devices had a sense of where they are and their status as carrying sensitive data recognised through digital IDs - plus additional meta-dynamic data, then 'cogeographic awareness' might result?

I blogged about this with ref to conceptual spaces.

This would be an artificial example and would make it possible for data previously designated as confidential, sensitive, - HOT data if you will - to self-destruct, 'e-vaporate' if it found itself beyond a given combined virtual or physical environment be that hospital, Trust boundary, SHA, or National border...? This capability already exists no doubt in the security services (although sometimes you wonder) or as suggested in the realms of 'MI' and '007'.

Cogeographic or (cogneographic) may be a neologism and seeks to conjoin the cognitive (cognition) involved in defining, representing and using concepts in conceptual spaces; AND the finding that knowledge is invariably situated - that is knowledge has a geography.

Copies of NHS and social care
data could - should - MUST
have a geography too...?

Another comment rightly questioned the ability to put personal data on
CDs and other media in the first place. Amid the emergence
of renewed debate about the future of e-health
records, clinicians may have a professional
duty to demand cogeographic
properties no
less ...?

Image source: http://www.tapintoquality.com/facts/glossary-d.html

Happy Anniversary 20th July!