illuminate tech

⏰ Ofcom have today published their Illegal Harms Codes and guidance, four months ahead of their statutory deadline 👏 Moving fast to implement the Online Safety Act signals a commitment to ensuring that safety by design is embedded into online services. ⚠️ Ofcom have described 2025 as their "year of action," with enforcement action and penalties of up £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue in store for non-compliant services ⚠️ ❓What do providers of online services need to do❓ 1️⃣ Assess the risk of illegal harms on their service by 16 March 2025. 2️⃣ From 17 March, begin implementing online safety measures. 🤝 Help is available! Ofcom have published a useful summary of today's statement, and will be releasing a tool to support compliance in early 2025. We'll share some useful links in the comment section ⬇️ If you'd like further clarity on the regulation, reach out to hello@illuminatetech.co.uk. 🔜 Ofcom will be publishing further statements on: 💡 The Children's Access Assessment (January 2025) 💡 Age assurance Guidance for providers of pornographic content (January 2025) 💡Draft Guidance on wider protection for women and girls (February 2025) 💡Final Codes and Guidance on the protection of children (April 2025) illuminate tech believe safety by design is both achievable and advantageous for online services of all sizes. Stay tuned for further updates on how we'll be supporting services during the implementation of the UK's Online Safety Act.

We're pleased to share that we are supporting the delivery of the Australian Government's Age Assurance Technology Trial. Our CTO Asad Ali, PhD is co-leading the evaluation design work stream, with George Billinge helping to ensure the Trial is delivered in an ethical manner. What do we bring to the Trial? 🧑💻 Deep technical expertise on age assurance technologies; ⚖️ Unique experience navigating the impact of age assurance on fundamental rights, including the rights of children. To learn more about why we're excited for this project and understand some of the challenges surrounding age assurance, read our latest blog post ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/e2pRfGdm eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman - Grant Tony Allen Age Check Certification Scheme

Sign up for free here: https://lnkd.in/ennhr2Ka

Hi everyone! This opportunity will close next Wednesday, on 20th November. We've had lots of excellent applicants, so have closed the job posting on LinkedIn to make things more manageable on our end. If you're interested, please apply with a CV and cover letter to hello@illuminatetech.co.uk.

🎉 We're hiring! 🎉 We're looking for a highly motivated person who shares our values to come and help build Illuminate Tech. At the moment we're a team of two, so we're looking for someone adaptable who is willing to take on responsibility. This is an opportunity to get a breadth of experience working on important, high-profile issues - and if it goes well, we'll offer equity and pay increases after six months. If you have significant experience in trust & safety / tech policy and are interested in taking up a new challenge, but would like a more senior role, please get in touch for a chat - we're happy to be flexible for the right person. Please share with your networks. We look forward to hearing from you!

🎉 Panel announcement for the Detecting Deepfakes Summit 🎉 Is the current legislative landscape fit for purpose for protecting citizens from deepfake-facilitated harm? Chairing this panel will be Faye Harrison from Bristows LLP, a specialist in data protection and online safety with a particular interest in protection of children. Dr Felipe Romero-Moreno from the University of Hertfordshire will be discussing his work looking into global legislation aimed at regulating the development and deployment of AI. Declan M. from the Information Commissioner's Office will be discussing the specific data processing activities that go into the production and dissemination of deepfakes. And Giulia T. will shed light on some real-world case studies of how the law is being applied to AI-facilitated harms - and some of the challenges we need to anticipate in the future. This will be a really enlightening session, with an excellent cast of speakers. Be sure to register for free today: https://lnkd.in/eQAkXGmE

🎉 NEW Detecting Deepfakes summit speaker announcement 🎉 Jodi Leedham is the Service Manager at Refuge's Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team. Jodi joined Refuge in 2019 and initially worked to support survivors of domestic abuse as a Health IDVA. During her time as a Health IDVA she worked closely with the IRIS team to deliver training to local hospitals. Jodi trained with SafeLives and is qualified in delivery of the Domestic Abuse Matters programme for first responders. Since joining the specialist technology facilitated abuse team in 2020, Jodi has supported survivors of abuse directly with complex cases of tech abuse and trained professionals in identifying and supporting survivors of technology facilitated abuse. The service at Refuge focuses on empowering survivors of abuse to take back control of their devices and stay online safely. The service, founded in 2017, works closely with other services at Refuge to campaign to change legislation that would better protect women and girls against the emerging threats new technologies can pose when abuse and continue to raise awareness of the issue of technology facilitated abuse. Jodi has spoken at international conferences and is a member of several working groups looking to identify best practice for tech developers to ensure safety by design encompasses and better protects women online. Remember to register for the summit, taking place on November 11th, for free here: https://lnkd.in/eQAkXGmE

🎉 NEW Detecting Deepfakes summit speaker announcement 🎉 Jessica Smith is a Technology Policy Manager at Ofcom, where she is exploring the implications of generative AI on online safety to ensure that Ofcom’s regulatory products reflect the risks posed by this technology. This involves undertaking broad research, including to consider interventions that online services could take to keep their users safe. Jess was part of a team who published two discussion papers: the first, exploring how actors across the technology supply chain could tackle harmful deepfakes, and second, unpacking how services could undertake effective AI red teaming evaluation exercises to reduce the likelihood that a model could produce illegal or harmful content. We're excited for Jess to share some of the insights from these papers on our first panel. Previously, Jess worked at the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, where she explored how data and AI could support the delivery of public services.  Remember to register for the summit, taking place on November 11th, for free here: https://lnkd.in/eQAkXGmE

🎉 NEW Detecting Deepfakes summit speaker announcement 🎉 Ami Kumar is a fourth-generation activist turned entrepreneur, leading the charge in developing AI solutions for trust and safety through his startup, Contrails AI. He has been at the forefront of combating misinformation in India, with his initiative #KeepItReal reaching over 100,000 students across India, Bhutan, and Nepal. In 2024, Contrails' deepfake detection solution played a crucial role during the Indian elections, aiding leading fact-checkers, and is now being rolled out globally. Ami’s work continues to shape the future of online safety and digital integrity. Ami will be joining us to shed light on the myriad ways deepfakes are being used to cause harm online. Remember to register for the summit for free here: https://lnkd.in/eQAkXGmE

🎉 Detecting Deepfakes summit speaker announcement 🎉 Kimberly Mai is a Principal Technology Adviser in AI Compliance at the Information Commissioner's Office and a researcher at University College London (UCL). She'll be joining us to discuss how we can responsibly develop technologies to tackle deepfake-facilitated harm.   Kimberly's PhD research on how humans cannot reliably detect audio deepfakes was featured in international news outlets including the BBC, New Scientist, and The Guardian. Kimberly holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from the London School of Economics and a master’s degree in data science and machine learning from University College London. Her research interests include anomaly detection, data protection, and AI governance. The detecting deepfakes summit, hosted by Innovate UK-funded Project DefAI, will take place on Ring Central on the 11th of November. Register for free here: https://lnkd.in/eaG6sH9P