Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1489656
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 JANUARY 2023 NEWS Call for Applications for Senior Manager (Operations) at Teatru Manoel (Ref: HR/TM/15/2022) Jobsplus Permit Number 3/2023 Reporting to the Chief Operations Officer (COO), the Senior Manager (Operations) is responsible for allocated maintenance, works projects and Stage Management as well as ensures that delivery of all performances at the Manoel Theatre are efficiently supported. The Senior Manager (Operations) is responsible to ensure that regular building inspections and routine checks are made to ensure that all systems are statutory compliant, operational, and free from hazards. The Senior Manager (Operations) supports the development and implementation of key operational and building management procedures to ensure that they are effective, represent best practice and are properly adhered to across the organisation. Furthermore, the Senior Manager (Operations) ensures that all health & safety policies, plans, procedures, rules and regulations are in place and adhered to and are regularly reviewed, updated and communicated to ensure a safe and healthy environment. "Interested applicants are to visit our website: www.teatrumanoel.mt for the full job description, required qualifications and instructions on how to apply". Application deadline for all calls: Wednesday 25 th January 2023 at noon. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But the UN's special rap- porteur on privacy, Prof. Joe Cannataci, had already told MaltaToday that only a strong justification – such as a risk of a terror attack – could justify such a technology in Malta. "That strong justification must be provided for by law," Cannataci said, having just re- turned from an official UN mis- sion to Germany to examine CCTV systems being deployed by police there. "A privacy-intrusive measure must be both 'necessary and proportionate in a democratic society' and even then, the law must provide adequate safe- guards. In practice this means that unless there is a real threat of a serious crime such as ter- rorism, one cannot introduce such a system in a place like Paceville where even there, most crimes are relatively mi- nor or public order crimes with many, such as petty theft, oc- curring inside bars and clubs." The Safe City company was financed by a €400,000 budget each year according to govern- ment budgetary estimates. The ministry for tourism informed MaltaToday that the agreement with Huawei had expired and will not be renewed and that Safe City Malta will no longer continue to function. "The ministry for tourism with other competent ministries are work- ing on a plan to ensure better security management in Mal- ta's main touristic zones. Safe City Malta has currently started the process of being dissolved. As soon as all accounts and fi- nalised and audited they will be duly presented." Privacy concerns Although Huawei's 'safe city' concept is based on facial rec- ognition software, Safe City's former director Joseph Cus- chieri had told MaltaToday – which had raised privacy con- cerns over the software – that the company would instead be using 'advanced video surveil- lance' due to serious privacy concerns. AVS could detect possible changes inside a mon- itored area to alert law enforce- ment units of possible commo- tions or brawls. Deployment had been planned for 2019. But Prof. Cannataci, who raised his serious concerns with the Safe City board, had then said even before "dreaming of" introducing such a CCTV sys- tem, the mere notion needed a law on its own to give planners a proper basis to act. "Before even dreaming of in- troducing facial-recognition CCTV, you first need an ad hoc law which provides the proper legal basis. Even with a detailed law containing specific safe- guards, such a system would normally have to be controlled by the police or an authority set up at law. The implications for privacy are so serious that, for example, the UK has a Com- missioner dedicated exclusively to oversight of CCTV surveil- lance." Even advanced CCTV which can detect the sound of a gun- shot or violent language or movement, using a Pan-Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) camera to turn and focus on the origin of that sound, would need to be properly authorised and have technical safeguards such as the ability to pixelate anything else unconnected to that sound. Controversial Chinese tech There was also a more serious concern about Huawei's plans in Malta, namely its advanced facial recognition algorithms and what it could do with that kind of data. Chinese technology giants such as ZTE provided infra- structure for the Ethiopian government to monitor its citizens' communications. CloudWalk Technology, a Guangzhou-based start-up, signed a deal with the Zimba- bwean government to provide a mass facial recognition pro- gram, replicating parts of the surveillance infrastructure that have made freedoms so limited in China. Robert Strayer, the then-US deputy assistant secretary for cyber and international affairs in 2019, had told MaltaToday that data used in the kind of technology adopted for Safe City "would be a cause for con- cern because that data could end up back in places such as Beijing where it would not be used for the purposes that we want… [and be] exploited for authoritarian purposes." Strayer used as an example the surveillance technology em- ployed by China within its own borders to assign social credit scores, surveil the movement of people, and identify who they are interacting with. Huawei contract expired, Safe City Malta to cease functioning, ministry says 5G roll-out: Huawei had also announced it was testing its 5G connectivity in Malta as part of its Safe City collaboration with the Maltese government