Perhaps this has been around already, but there’s a great video put out by Consumer Watchdog explaining how Google is keeping track of every search that you make online. They offer a petition to sign and send to Google, asking to protect consumer privacy.
Archive for the ‘privacy’
The Seoul Declaration on the Future of the Internet Economy
In June, the OECD had a Ministerial Conference on the Future of the Internet Economy. They published a report which is intended to help countries shape policies concerning the Internet economy. The themes that are addressed are the following:
- Making Internet access available to everyone and everywhere.
- Promoting Internet-based innovation, competition and user choice.
- Securing critical information infrastructures and responding to new threats.
- Ensuring the protection of personal information, respect for intellectual property rights, and more generally a trusted Internet-based environment which offers protection to individuals, especially minors and other vulnerable groups.
- Promoting secure and responsible use of the Internet; and,
- Creating an environment that encourages infrastructure investment, higher levels of connectivity and innovative services and applications.
There were some positive policy suggestions that were made, such as:
- Promote a culture of openness and sharing of research data among public research communities.
- Raise awareness of the potential costs and benefits of restrictions and limitations on access to and sharing of research data from public funding.
The OECD Civil Society Forum, comprised of the OECD Civil Society Reference Group and the The Trade Union Advisory Committee, produced a paper (and their own conference) intended to bring to the attention of the OECD Ministers assembled and the OECD member countries the concerns of those not represented at the Ministerial conference.
Their paper highlights the following:
The policy goals for the Future Internet Economy should be considered within the broader framework of protection of human rights, the promotion of democratic institutions, access to information, and the provision of affordable and non-discriminatory access to advanced communication networks and services.
Their recommendations cover
- Freedom of expression
- Protection of Privacy and Transparency
- Consumer Protection
- Promotion of Access to Knowledge
- Internet Governance
- Promotion of Open Standards and Net Neutrality
- Balanced Intellectual Property Policies
- Support for Pluralistic Media
How to improve your privacy on Facebook … more info
This tip arrived in my email today via the CLA distlist.
Facebook continues to gather your browing history … this link provides some info on how to block it.
Thanks to Toni Samek for the head’s up.
-PC-
Protect your online privacy
In cruising through some leftie-librarian sites, I came across this quick and dirty guide through the fabulous Jenna Freedman’s delicious links, handily available through her blog-under-construction lower east side librarian.
The guide was produced by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Check out Six Tips to Protect your Online Search Privacy and feel safer whilst you surf.
-PC-
Watching how Orwell would have been watched
These are the surveillance cameras in George Orwell’s London neighbourhood.
funny, and ironically disturbing.
addendum: on second thought, it’s just plain disturbing -PC
via Digg and thisislondon
-PC
Canadian Universities React to the Patriot Act’s Impact on Database Records
Dozens of Canadian university and college libraries are changing how they arrange for their students and faculty to do online research, in part because of a U.S. law intended to detect possible terrorist activity. (via Toni Samek)
- JH
China Unblocks Wikipedia
“China has unblocked Wikipedia. Wikipedia refused to censor itself to appease totalitarian Beijing, but China unblocked it anyway. China needs Wikipedia and Chinese net-users would access it using circumvention tools — the block on Wikipedia made Chinese Wikipedia users into automatic dissidents.
If only Google, Microsoft and Yahoo had the same courage as Wikipedia, the same confidence that their search-engines were valuable enough to be indispensible.” (via Boing Boing)
- JH
Pentagon Funding Research on Harvesting Data from MySpace, Social Networking Sites
“New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon’s National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming “semantic web” championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals.” (via Boing Boing)
J.
Call for privacy protection in copyright reform
If you’re interested in privacy and copyright issues, it may be a good idea to keep Intellectualprivacy.ca bookmarked and ready at your fingertips. They just sent a letter and background paper to the Ministers of Canadian Heritage and Industry calling for:
1. any proposed copyright reforms will prioritize privacy protection by including a full privacy consultation and a full privacy impact assessment with the introduction of any copyright reform bill;
2. any proposed anti-circumvention provisions will create no negative privacy impact; and
3. any proposed copyright reforms will include pro-active privacy protections that, for example, enshrine the rights of Canadians to access and enjoy copyright works anonymously and in private.
The letter was co-signed by, among others, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Canadian Federation of Students, and the Canadian Association for Open Source. It was only one of several, apparently, that are part of a campaign being run by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) at the University of Ottawa. More on this story here.
S.
Geist on Privacy
Next Sunday, on the Sunday Edition of CBC Radio One, there should be a really interesting debate about:
the trade-offs between security and privacy. What information do governments need to keep us safe? What protections do citizens have from intrusions? What is the importance of privacy in a democracy?
There is a slew of really interesting guests, including Michael Geist and Liz McIntyre co-author Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID. It’s even being recorded at Libraries and Archives Canada!
[source: Information Policy Committee Listserv of the BCLA]