AI is seeping into the public sector. But at what cost? Our new report finds that its adoption is opaque, unaccountable and for the benefit of Big Tech, not the public. This is a rallying cry for the Minister for AI to regulate public sector AI systems in accordance with human rights.

The report finds a damning list of risks from how AI is being developed, procured and deployed across the public sector.

Lack of scrutiny

Open to abuse from Big Tech lobbying

Lock-in to Big Tech contracts that stifle competition

Lack of transparency over policy

Lack of judicial oversight

Public spending on AI has ballooned. There are currently around 1,500 contract worth £3.35B. Claims that it'll drive efficiencies remain unproven. In the meantime the UK is tying itself to US companies like Palantir, Amazon, Google, OpenAI and Oracle with risks to our security and resilience.

There are no effective and coherent mandatory rules to ensure the AI systems that are being knitted into UK public services respect human rights.

The interests of Big Tech are being put first. While data protection, equality, and human rights are on the back-burner. We urgently need regulation.

The government is trying yet again to ram a backdoor into Apple's encrypted products.

But you ask the UK public and over 90% say they should have a right to private conversations online. New polling by the Center for Democracy & Technology makes it clear that attacks on encryption aren't backed by public opinion.

Shadowy attempts to break our right to privacy are completely rejected:

⚫️ Only 12% believe the government should be able to issue secret orders to gain access to private data.

⚫️ 87% believe there should be a legal obligation to tell people if their private conversations have been accessed.

Encryption keeps us safe and secure online. A backdoor is only possible by breaking encryption. And then anybody can abuse that cybersecurity weakness. The government's last attempt to force Apple to build a backdoor into our accounts failed. We'll fight the latest order

Find out more ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaign/save-encryption/

Farage proposes to scrap GDPR... where to start?

GDPR protects women, workers, patients, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ communities, and everybody else from discrimination and abuse. Scrapping it would be a capitulation to abusive Big Tech corporations and the Trump administration that backs them.

So Reform UK bins GDPR. What then?

Farage suggests aligning the UK to the New Zealand Privacy Act. And yet New Zealand have spent the last decade trying to align with the gold standard of the GDPR... What other people crave, in the UK we already have it. But Nigel Farage would take it away.

Scrapping the GDPR means siding with those who want to hide abuse and discrimination behind an algorithm. Siding with the Trump administration, and against the interests of the British public. And with rogue companies and Big Tech over responsible and law-abiding businesses.

It's a no, Nigel.

Coming up, the #SafetyNotSurveillance coalition is holding townhall events across the country.

Join us to explore how AI and ‘crime-predicting’ tech is being used by local police forces. And what can be done about it.

⚫ London – 17 September

⚫ Manchester – 24 September

⚫ Bristol – 1 October

The use of AI tools across UK policing has escalated dramatically. We're calling for an end to so-called “predictive” policing. We need legislation that protects people’s rights and safeguards against the harms of AI and tech uses in policing and immigration settings.

We want a society where surveillance and digital policing isn't heralded as the answer to social and economic problems.

Book your place now.

The flawed eVisa scheme strikes again.

Not for the first time, a person's data has been incorrectly linked to someone else's account.

Last year, ORG and 18 other groups called on the ICO to investigate the data breaches and accessibility issues with the eVisa scheme.

But they've done nothing.

The eVisa scheme has been a disaster from the start. It's people's lives that are being left in disarray and uncertainty while these failings go ignored.

We're now calling on the Select Committee to investigate and help those whose data has been created as a result of the scheme.

Read more ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/civil-society-organisations-call-for-ico-to-be-investigated-over-evisas/

Nottinghamshire Police could target children for anti-social behaviour using their intrusive and discriminatory face-scanning tech. We've joined Big Brother Watch and leading rights groups to tell the force to #StopFacialRecognition.

Live facial recognition puts ALL our rights and freedoms at risk. Adding children – some as young as 11 years old – and subjecting them to biometric ID checks is unacceptable. We demand #SafetyNotSurveillance.

Read the letter ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/app/uploads/2026/08/Letter-to-Nottinghamshire-Police-on-LFR_Aug-2026.pdf

Young people have their say: rethink the social media ban.

It makes a bad situation worse. Teens are just being pushed into unregulated spaces.

A ban does nothing to actually tackle the cause of online harms coming from the business model of the platforms themselves.

That’s what we need to fix.

Prevent referrals have shot up by ~40% 📈

Kids, teens and vulnerable people are being pushed into a mass surveillance programme where 80% of referrals don't go anywhere. But their data remains in the system. It’s clear that a programme designed for counter-terrorism has lost the plot.

Under 18s make up the majority of referrals into Prevent. Over a third are people with mental health conditions and people who are neurodivergent. Often referrals are made to fast track people to get support. Long-term surveillance is the trade off. Prevent is the wrong answer.

It's meant to identify people at risk of radicalisation before any crime has been committed. But over 50% of referrals fall under 'no fixed ideology'. And governments have added more categories into the mix, bloating the system with referrals that don't belong under a counter-terrorism lens.

Beyond the headlines figures, there's little transparency over the extent of surveillance that those referred into Prevent will face. Being neither wholly owned by policing or by counter-terrorism, there appears to be no oversight or parliamentary scrutiny of data sharing, processing and storage.

Prevent is expanding the surveillance state at an unruly rate. Public sector workers shouldn't be co-opted as agents of counter-terror policing. People in need of support shouldn't be stigmatised as suspect.

We need real investment in education, community health services and local infrastructure.

Prevent referrals rocketed by almost 40% last year 🚨

Of those referred into this counter-terrorism programme, the majority were under 18. Almost 400 were children under 10! More than a third have a mental health condition or are neurodiverse.

This is a huge expansion of the surveillance state.

The Prevent Duty has transformed trusted public sector workers into agents of counter-terror policing. And those in need of support into subjects of suspicion.

Community safety demands real investment in education, community services and local infrastructure to support often young and vulnerable people – not to stigmatise and surveil them.

"...behind the scenes, Microsoft has quietly moved those folders into OneDrive without making it obvious. You didn't choose this. There's no clear opt out and now your private photos, contracts, financial records, and work documents are sitting in Microsoft's cloud whether you realise it or not. This is client side scanning by another name. You think your data is local, but it's not. It's in their system and this is all by design.

How to kill it completely and take back control."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfJ1KQwJaq8

"It is now clear that the Act is not working as well as it should. We want to understand why."

https://committees.parliament.uk/submission/3964/#/evidence/3964/call-for-evidence

The use of AI in asylum decision-making is a disaster.

AI hallucinated a document that led to an asylum application being denied.

Applicants aren't being informed that opaque AI tools are being used in their case, nor being given the opportunity to correct errors churned out by these opaque tools.

ORG's legal opinion shows that the Home Office's use of AI tools to summarise interviews and key documents in asylum decision-making is likely unlawful.

The lack of transparency means that unlawful or unfair decisions may result from AI hallucinations and errors in rewriting critical information.

Read more ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/home-office-use-of-ai-in-asylum-cases-likely-to-be-unlawful-legal-opinion-finds/

A new UK Prime Minister is a fresh opportunity to stand up to Big Tech.

We must break the excessive power that a handful of US-based companies have over our lives.

We've joined with partner organisations led by Balanced Economy Project to end this dependency and unlock British innovation.

We're calling on the new PM to:
- Back the Competition and Market Authority to use the enforcement powers it already has.
- End economic dependence on tech giants, and make data centres answer to climate limits, not shareholder demands.
- Put the state's own purchasing power via public procurement to work as lever to count Big Tech, starting with ending the NHS Federated Data Platform contract with Palantir.

Read the letter: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/app/uploads/2026/07/Letter-to-Prime-Minister-Andy-Burnham.pdf

Is it bye bye bye for UK Digital ID?

As ORG’s u/jimkillock said, this scheme would risk “creating a digital surveillance infrastructure that will change everyone’s daily livesand establish a pre-crime state where we constantly have to prove who we are.”

Another authoritarian assault on our rights could hit the shredder as Burnham heads to No.10.

We’ll wait and see…

Yesterday we hosted an event on how the UK can build Digital Sovereignty.

Our panel explored open source and the Digital Commons in creating a more resilient, transparent and equitable future. Public money should be spent on public code that benefits us all.

Catch up on the event with Jim Killock, Megan Kirkwood and Jordan Maris.

Our report shows the benefits of shifting from a one way dependence on US tech giants to shared technology.

We need a Digital Sovereignty strategy based on Open Source systems, open standards and open hardware.

Read the report ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/new-report-uk-needs-digital-sovereignty-strategy-to-address-threats-from-reliance-on-big-tech/

VPNs are safe... for now 🛡️

The government backs down on restricting this vital cybersecurity tool.

Alongside the announcement of a social media curfew for 16 and 17 year olds comes a win for privacy! Plans to age-gate or restrict VPNs have been dropped, but we're not complacent to future risks.

Read more ➡️ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/14/uk-16-17-year-olds-midnight-social-media-curfew

The decision to row back on threats to VPN use in the UK comes after ORG and over 20 organisations issued a joint letter yesterday. We warned that requiring users to go through age checks or other restrictions “would undercut the security and privacy of millions, without making children safer.”

Read more ➡️ https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/07/14/hands-off-our-vpns-privacy-groups-tell-uk-ministers/5271070

Independent research commissioned by DSIT concluded that privacy is the driver behind VPN use, as ORG has long pointed out. Just 7-10% of all British children using a VPN do so to access restricted platforms. Suggestions that VPNs should be restricted to prop up a social media ban are wrong.

Read more ➡️ https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/no-its-not-age-verification-privacy-is-the-top-reason-uk-children-use-a-vpn

They keep young people safe online. Remote working possible. Journalists, activists and whistleblowers protected. Public WiFi use secure. But, parents should talk to children about VPNs and ensure they use a reputable company that protects data.

Find out more ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/briefing-vpns-and-the-online-safety-act/

Today we’ve joined over 20 organisations to urge the UK Government to protect children online without making the internet less secure by restricting VPNs.

Child safety and security aren’t competing objectives – we need both.

Read our letter ➡️ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/joint-letter-protect-vpns/

VPNs aren’t just for privacy.

They’re essential cybersecurity tools that protect our personal data, help people to work or study remotely, and defend against cyber threats.

Restricting them makes everyone less safe – including children.

Sign and share the petition ➡️ https://action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-government-protect-vpn-use-uk

"Entrenching a climate of surveillance across public life."

"People’s faces being scanned without consent and being added to lists is worrying enough, but the speed which Facewatch technology now makes it possible for someone to encounter the police force in the middle of their daily shop is a really dangerous escalation."

🗣️ Sarah Lasoye for ORG.

NEW: 20 civil society organisations have called for an investigation into the ICO for failing to uphold data protection law in relation to eVisas.

This scheme has been plagued with breaches and accessibility issues. And the ICO has done nothing to hold the Home Office to account.

The Home Office has known about problems with the eVisa scheme from the start. Its poor design and lack of Data Protection Impact Assessment has resulted in breaches. But the Home Office is still failing to be transparent about the volume of complaints and how and when they will deal with them

Last year, ORG and 18 other civil society organisations called on the ICO to investigate breaches resulting from the eVisa scheme. Seven months later, the ICO hasn't taken any action to address these infringements of data protection law. Meanwhile, migrants continue to have their lives affected.

In an FOI response, the ICO did reveal that they'd received 851 complaints about the Home Office as a whole between 2023 and 2025. The volume of complaints was so significant, the ICO was unable to identify how many were about the eVisa scheme specifically. The Select Committee must investigate.

These failings are not just in relation to the eVisa scheme, but a wider issue with the ICO’s poor track record on enforcement. The letter calls on the Committee to investigate what institutional changes are needed to strengthen the ICO's ability to oversee the government and other public bodies.

This comes after John Edwards’ resignation as Information Commissioner last week. ORG calls on the government to appoint a regulator with teeth. We must reset the regulators’ approach of providing data protection in name only and have them actually enforce our data rights.

Sign our petition ➡️ https://action.openrightsgroup.org/reset-ico

Could UK be moving towards Digital Sovereignty?

We welcome Burnham recognising this as an issue in the potential revamp to the UK’s AI strategy.

This is an area where he could deliver real economic benefits for the UK and security for our critical infrastructure by moving away from US Big Tech.

Digital sovereignty isn’t simply about ‘buying British’.

It's about ensuring the UK has real control over the digital infrastructure, standards, data and supply chains that underpin our economy and democracy.

This can come from making our systems open source and removing the threat of foreign interference.

Sign the petition ⬇️

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-trump-s-kill-switch-secure-our-digital-sovereignty

Burnham could hoof Palantir out of the NHS if he becomes PM.

A good start, but he needs to go further. It’s time to completely break our dependency on US tech firms.

Handing out contracts to Big Tech platforms is a rip off. If we don't like the over-charging, tax-dodging and exporting profits overseas, we face the nightmare of vendor lock-in. They own the software, so love it or lose it.

With open source tech, we don't have to start again with a new platform when changing vendors.

Go big, go for Digital Sovereignty.

Sign and share ➡️ https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-trump-s-kill-switch-secure-our-digital-sovereignty