Charlie Alford

Refuge data reveals 78% rise in tech and economic abuse referrals

Post author:The Canary
Post published:9 July 2026
Post last modified:9 July 2026

Refuge, the UK’s largest specialist domestic abuse charity, has recorded a staggering 78% rise in referrals for cases of technology-facilitated abuse and economic abuse. Of these cases, Refuge’s frontline team has observed a worrying increase in perpetrators exploiting car finance agreements, putting survivors in significant debt. Between April 2025-March 2026, there were 967 referrals to Refuge’s specialist Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment team, compared to 542 referrals in 2024 – 2025. Of the 2025-2026 referrals, 43% (414) survivors reported experiencing some form of economic abuse, compared to 37% (198) of survivors in 2024-2025. Economic abuse can take many forms, all of…

Scottish SNP government announces popular AI data centre moratorium

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:7 July 2026
Post last modified:7 July 2026

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has announced plans to support a pause on all new AI data centre developments, the National has revealed. The move comes after many months of community protests against proposed sites across the country. There has been both grassroots and political pushback, including from several MSPs from various parties. The SNP-run government of Scotland will join calls from the Scottish Greens to support a moratorium on AI data centre developments. The moratorium will be accepted following a vote by the SNP’s National Council, a key decision-making body in the party’s organisation. The two parties hold a clear…

UK Government lied about ‘renewable’ Scottish data centre plans

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:6 July 2026
Post last modified:6 July 2026

Plans for a supposedly “renewable” multi-billion pound data centre project in Lanarkshire entirely misrepresented their actual environmental and economic impacts. The Guardian‘s recent investigation reveals that the £8.2bn-valued data complex, touted as being energy self-sufficient, was unfeasible from the start. The centre and adjoining power-plant in Scotland’s central belt was supposed to be powered by on-site renewables and nuclear energy. In theory, anyway. Built jointly by US corporation CoreWeave and Scottish data firm DataVita, the complex was supposed to power itself entirely by 2030. However, internal correspondence documents obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests show that the site had an…

AI data centres plan causes uproar across Scotland

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:10 June 2026
Post last modified:11 June 2026

Scotland looks set for an AI data centre crisis after plans were revealed detailing a massive number of data centres planned for construction on Scotland’s Central Belt. ARPS, Scotland’s countryside charity, published an interactive map illustrating where the data centres are earmarked for. The charity compiled the data over growing concerns about the impact of the data units on electricity prices, communities and the environment. So far, at least 18 such data warehouse projects are seeking planning permission, the National reported, with a further six in the pipeline. ARPS is calling for the Scottish government to implement a moratorium on these centres…

Stormont Justice Bill permits the state to keep your data for a lifetime

Post author:Robert Freeman
Post published:4 June 2026
Post last modified:9 June 2026

The Justice Bill currently passing through the Northern Ireland Assembly will allow the police to retain a person’s biometric data for a massive 75 years. This is despite the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) previously ruling that indefinite holding of such information is a violation of privacy. 75 years may not be indefinite, but it’s essentially a lifetime, meaning the difference is largely moot. More worryingly, the bill allows the state to keep information such as fingerprints and DNA for most of a century in cases of “terrorism-related” offences. This could include cases of inviting “support for a proscribed organisation”.…

Palantir deal could hand your personal data to Trump administration

Post author:Joe Glenton
Post published:1 June 2026
Post last modified:9 June 2026

A scandalous deal between hard-right AI war firm Palantir and the UK’s financial authority could hand the Trump administration your personal data. Meanwhile, campaigners and MPs say that the deal with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must prove that sensitive information will not fall into Trump’s hands. On 1 June, the Guardian reported: A US law that can oblige tech companies to disclose information to American authorities may apply to Palantir’s deal to help the Financial Conduct Authority detect crime. House of Commons science and technology select committee Martin Wrigley MP delivered the warning. He was quoted by the Guardian saying that…

Ireland’s explosive data centre growth triggers shocking rise in electricity bills

Post author:Robert Freeman
Post published:31 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

A new report has revealed the whopping tax levied on households in Ireland due to runaway data centre expansion — a massive €715 million extra on electricity bills from 2015-2023. Not only that, the document published by Friends of the Earth Ireland (FOTEI) projects that between 2025-2034, bill payers are: …set to face an additional €1.43 billion in electricity bills linked to data centre growth. It also highlights how those least able to pay are hit, stating that: …the poorest households in Ireland paid an extra €209 on electricity bills between 2021 and 2023 due to data centre growth. The cost…