Etiket arşivi: Report

British Film Institute apologises to filmmaker over racial discrimination complaint

PrizmaBetim,

British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts has issued an apology to a prominent filmmaker of colour, after an independent investigation – which coincides with the BFI London Film Festival – concluded that the BFI “badly” mishandled his racial discrimination complaint.

Verita, the complaints reviewer for National Lottery-funded organizations, concluded that the BFI had “badly handled” the long-running discrimination complaint made by Faisal Qureshi, the producer behind the BAFTA-winning film Four Lions and HBO’s Emmy-winning Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland.

The report stated that the UK’s most powerful and influential movie funding body’s response fell “well short” of expected standards.

However, there was not enough evidence to draw conclusions on Qureshi’s view that there was “systemic racism within the BFI.”

British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts (left) – filmmaker Faisal Qureshi (right)

Last year, we reported that Deadline had published an in-depth report regarding Qureshi’s complaint. Qureshi was given incorrect information about accessing National Lottery funding and said that he was inappropriately discouraged from bidding for funding.

BFI executives previously apologized verbally to Qureshi, but the film body did not meet his requests for a formal written apology. Until now.

Roberts has written to Qureshi, admitting that the Verita report “clearly indicates that our handling of your complaint fell well short of both your expectations and ours, and we let you down. I would like to reassure you that we take the findings of the Verita report seriously and have already made several improvements to our complaints procedure.”

The CEO said that he appreciated that Qureshi remains “dissatisfied with the BFI’s support for filmmakers and particularly filmmakers from the global majority.

The BFI added that it “cares deeply” about being an anti-racist organization and that they’d “overhauled (their) complaints process and handling of complex cases.”

Qureshi responded by saying: “There is only so many times organisations can say they have learned from their mistakes, usually by inflicting trauma on ethnic minorities. That it took five years to get this far only for them to go ‘trust us again’ is not a reasonable reassurance. Maybe a more significant one is change in their leadership.”

Qureshi said he remained uncertain about whether to accept Roberts’ apology or his offer of a meeting.

“It’s kind of like the unrepentant school bully has been compelled to give an apology,” he said. “I feel like a test pilot or a lab rat pushing the envelope of what can be achieved within the field of bureaucratic apathy.”

EU endorses its US data-sharing deal, as privacy advocates point to loopholes

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The US is complying with a key privacy framework required to ensure Europeans’ data isn’t misused when sent overseas, the European Commission concluded in a report published on Wednesday.  

The EU-US data privacy framework regulates transatlantic data flows for thousands of companies – but privacy advocates worry it’s full of loopholes. 

“The US authorities have put in place the necessary structures and procedures to ensure that the data privacy framework functions effectively,” the Commission concluded in its review of the deal, specifically praising the set-up of a US oversight authority.  

Over 2,800 US companies are currently certified under the deal, allowing them to exchange data more easily and cheaply, the report said. 

The framework was introduced in 2023 after the EU’s highest court struck down two previous data-sharing arrangements, known as the privacy shield and safe harbour decisions. 

One year on, the Commission, alongside the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), national data protection authorities, and representatives of various US government departments, assessed its implementation.  

The new framework was intended to address judges’ concerns that the collection of European citizens’ private data by US companies and intelligence services was disproportionate.  

But critics remain sceptical. 

“The United States is not adhering to what it promised the Commission,” Philippe Latombe, a former member of the French data protection authority (CNIL) and a former MP, told Euronews. 

He pointed to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was supposed to be abandoned but was instead renewed last spring, and which allows US intelligence to collect data from American platforms and applications such as Teams, Cisco, and WebEx. “The Commission knows this, acknowledges it, yet it fails to draw conclusions from its own findings,” Latombe added. 

The Commission’s report acknowledges FISA and concludes that future mitigation measures could be introduced. 

NOYB, an activist group focused on online privacy, has also expressed frustration with a report which it says constitutes the Commission marking its own homework.  

“We’ve lost count of the positive reports published by the Commission in recent years. Despite them, the [EU] Court of Justice has consistently found massive violations. It’s like a student claiming to have done everything perfectly, when in fact, they are bound to fail,” NOYB told Euronews. 

Latombe has already initiated legal action against the EU-US framework, and NOYB has also indicated its intention to challenge the deal. 

The industry is more positive. 

The Business Software Alliance, a lobby group representing major software manufacturers, welcomed the report, saying they “are pleased to see confirmation that US authorities have successfully put in place all the necessary elements to support the framework’s data protection standards.” 

According to the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), the report is “welcome news for organisations seeking predictability in this area”. 

“It also confirms that adequacy remains a strategic priority for the European Commission in its support for data flows on the global stage,” IAPP added.  

The framework is next due to be assessed in three years’ time. 

Investors Lost Record High $5.6B to Crypto Scams in 2023, FBI Says

PrizmaBetim, , , ,

Federal Soruşturma Ofisi’nin (FBI) İnternet Hataları Şikayet Merkezi’nden gelen yeni bir rapora nazaran, yatırımcılar 2023’te kripto parayla ilgili mali cürümlerden rekor düzeyde 5,6 milyar dolar kaybetti; bu sayı 2022’ye nazaran %45 arttı.

Pazartesi günü yayınlanan rapora nazaran, yatırım dolandırıcılığı 2023’te kripto ile ilgili dolandırıcılığın en yaygın ve değerli tipiydi. Ajansın geçen yıl aldığı 69.000’den fazla kripto ile ilgili hata raporunun neredeyse yarısı yatırım dolandırıcılığı raporlarıydı ve yatırım dolandırıcıları tam 4 milyar dolar çaldı. Kripto kabahatleri FBI’ın aldığı şikayetlerin sırf yaklaşık %10’unu oluştururken, 5,6 milyar dolarlık sayı şikayetçilerin toplam kaybının yaklaşık yarısıydı.

Yatırım dolandırıcılığı planları ekseriyetle kurbanlarına en az riskle büyük getiriler elde etme fırsatı vaat eder ve son yıllarda artış göstermiştir. Geçtiğimiz yıl, kripto ile ilgili en bariz yatırım dolandırıcılığı tipi FBI’ın “güvenle etkinleştirilen” planlar olarak tanımladığı şeydi. Bazen “domuz kesimi” olarak da isimlendirilen bu yatırım dolandırıcılığı tipi, dolandırıcıların kurbanlarıyla ekseriyetle iletileşme uygulamaları üzerinden münasebet kurmaları ve akabinde onları çekemeyecekleri geçersiz kripto para platformlarına büyük ölçüde para yatırmaya teşvik etmeleri ile uzun vakit dilimleri boyunca gerçekleşir.

FBI raporuna nazaran, bu domuz bölümü yahut yatırım dolandırıcılıklarının kurbanlarının birden fazla “bu düzmece yatırımlardan kaynaklanan kayıpları karşılamak için büyük ölçüde borç biriktirmiş.” 30-49 yaş aralığındaki kurbanlar yatırım dolandırıcılıklarıyla ilgili en fazla şikayeti bildirirken, 60 yaş üstü kurbanlar en fazla kaybı bildirdi – yalnızca geçen yıl 1,24 milyar doların üzerinde.

IC3, ABD vatandaşları ve yabancılardan gelen şikayetleri dikkate alsa da, geçen yıl kripto paralarla ilgili dolandırıcılık raporlarının %83’ü Amerikalı yatırımcılardan geldi. Kaliforniya sakinleri hem şikayet sayısı (9.522) hem de kayıp ölçüsü (1,2 milyar $) açısından birinci sırada yer aldı.

İnsan ticareti irtibatı

ProPublica’nın 2022’de yaptığı ve daha sonra Birleşmiş Milletler ve öbürleri tarafından da tekrarlanan bir araştırma, birçok kripto yatırım dolandırıcısının Güneydoğu Asya’daki kelamda domuz kesme çeteleri tarafından tutulan ve dolandırıcılık operasyonları yürütmeye zorlanan insan ticareti mağdurları olduğunu tespit etti.

FBI’ın raporunda, yurtdışına seyahat eden ABD vatandaşlarına “yurtdışındaki dolandırıcılık tesislerinde işgücü ticaretiyle ilişkili düzmece iş ilanları riski” konusunda ihtarda bulunuluyor.

Raporda, “Bu bileşikler çalışanları iradeleri dışında tutuyor ve emekçileri dolandırıcılık operasyonlarına katılmaya zorlamak için gözdağı veriyor. Hatalılar, öncelikli olarak Asya’daki insanları hedeflemek için toplumsal medyada ve çevrimiçi istihdam sitelerinde düzmece iş ilanları yayınlıyor” denildi.

“Çalışanlara sıklıkla seyahat ve öbür masrafları ödemeleri gerektiği söylenir, bu da çalışanın başlangıçta borçlu olduğu manasına gelir. Daha sonra borcunu öderken birebir vakitte oda ve yemek masraflarını da ödemeye çalışmak zorundadırlar. Hata aktörleri, çalışanın artan borcunu ve mahallî kolluk kuvvetlerinin korkusunu onları denetim etmek için ek bir araç olarak kullanırlar. Kaçak çalışanlar bazen satılır ve bileşikler ortasında transfer edilir, bu da borçlarına daha da eklenir,” diye devam etti rapor.