Governments like to do things which at least sound open and honest. It makes them look like Thoroughly Good Eggs, when maybe the truth might be a little murkier. They also like to quietly roll back those things when it suits them, and so it is that [Jonty], of Electromagnetic Field fame, has assembled a list of code repositories quietly disappeared by the UK Government. Naturally, being thorough about such things, he’s also kept copies.
Now we’re always happy to reach for a mildly sensational title, but paging through the archive it’s more a collection of flotsam and jetsam than a trove of state secrets, after all these were all public GitHub repositories. There’s a lot of web stuff, some data analytics in R for those interminable government reports, odd bits of server code, and a whole load more. The Met Office Informatics Lab in particular has a fair bit of climate related code and data.
Should Brits with an interest in government openness be concerned here? In terms of the data and code deleted, probably not, but in terms of that which they might delete without notice in the future, it’s a slippery slope. We’re glad people like [Jonty] are there to make these things a little less easy to disappear.
I’m not surprised and I guess these projects were moved to a repository in the UK. GitHub is no longer a good home for projects from users outside the US, including governments and NGOs.
They were not.
Well done Jonty. Ignore the hate in these comments.
I can see from just reading the DVLA archive that there were some good tools in there but also some dangerous ones.
Quoting: “for the lulz”, “some people just want to watch the world burn”
While that’s true, it’s also incredibly unlikely to be a factor in UKGOV’s decision. They’re still more than happy to hand out contracts and citizens’ data to Palantir.
Palantir? That’s not the bad company. Flock is the bad one. Palantir is just lawful neutral/lawful good. Flock is neutral evil and much more worrying.
Palantir is far more invasive and participates with anyone that pays them. Many police depts have contracts with palantir as well.
Yeah there are indeed great things about Palantir. That’s a clear example of Palantir being more lawful good. Working to uphold the law.
Exactly, assisting law enforcement. That’s lawful good. It’s in the name.
Not if they are assisting the police in illegal searches.
The German SS was law enforcement, and ICE isn’t really all that different. The lawfulness of ICE is debatable at best, and good isn’t one of the words I would use to describe it
Flock only exists in the US because governments are largely unable to operate camera networks themselves due to potential legal issues. Since they can’t collect the data themselves they just buy it from a data provider. (The Federal Government is the exception that proves the rule, though — it operates an extensive roadside surveillance network.)
I’m not sure who owns and operates the swarms of cameras infesting the UK but its likely that there are contractors involved simply because government likes to offload its infrastructure nuts and bolts (and in the UK that includes a lot of traditional government functions).
Wouldn’t worry too much about what contracts get given out. We’ve got digital age verification now being pushed, eventually everyone’s biometric and government data will be leaked.
I don’t like Microsoft but GitHub is a good home for projects. It’s hasn’t had a Microsoft makeover yet so it’s still reliable and a good home for everyone, regardless of nationality or purpose.
The trade war USA vs. the rest of the world, US laws (Cloud Act, etc.) and unpredictable politics make all US-based corporations to a threat for other nations.
Haha cool
The US is a total wildcard these days, no one this side of the pond trusts it anymore. And with good reason. Best we keep our stuff to ourselves when friends become toxic.
haha we think the exact same thing about the UK, unlikely to remain noticeably western in the next 10-25 years.
maybe you might have some chance of surviving if Rupert Lowe can actually establish a beachhead in its rotted bloated corpse of a bureaucracy
“Toxic…” Grow up.
Indeed. Good adult argument, I’ll consider myself corrected by an intellige…. oh no, my mistake.
Github… is… reliable? The hosting service that has one nine of reliability recently? That hosting service?
Putin is famously very nervous about github and restricted its use
Yes anyone whomis worried about us control should be.
Did I miss something? It’s GitHub censoring code based on govt demands now or something?
Disappearing sites. That’s what local copies and internet archive is for.
“Thoroughly Good Eggs”
You are Jacob Rees-Mogg and I claim my £5.
Wow, there is a lot of garbage in that repo.
I recall corporate cleanup like that, delete everything, bring things back from deep storage if someone complains loud enough. If you ask “do you still need that?” it’ll hang around forever.
It’s enough to say you don’t believe the content is useful to you, this does not mean it useless for everyone. I wouldn’t know what to do with these gits, but it never stopped me from finding obscure files in an archive which just turned out to be what I needed. Even if it just for posterity. The code is already written and paid for with public money. Not like hosting a few small gits is expensive.
Luckily, as open-source is open in perpetuity, it doesn’t stop archivers from hosting the files. Be it without the history and the original page/metadata. Things like comments, stars, and issues exist outside the files, sadly.
Fair. Poorly worded sentence on my part.
Information wants to be free…
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