U.S. lawmakers have begun debating updated privacy legislation in the United States to protect consumers from intrusive online tracking and other violations of privacy in the Internet world. Unfortunately, many privacy advocates fear a bill will be too influenced by industry interests that won't really protect against companies converting personal information into profit centers.
In fact, advocates need to highlight the much tougher privacy standards being developed in Europe and the lessons for U.S. policymakers. France fining Google yesterday for illegal wi-spy monitoring of personal data through Street View cars and apparently individual smart phones is one example of tougher European standards.
Principles for European Union Privacy Policy: And a speech by Viviane Reding, European Union Justice Commissioner late last week, entitled Your data, your rights: Safeguarding your privacy in a connected world, laid out key principles for privacy policy:
European governments did become especially active in developing these principles in response to the revelations last year that Google had been collecting emails and other personal information through tapping data from personal wi-fi networks all over the world. The United Kingdom concluded that Google's actions violated U.K. data protection law. Last May, German prosecutors based in Hamburg opened a criminal investigation into Defendant's conduct.
Learning from Germany's Data Protection Policies: And Germany, for example, is leading the charge in promoting more specific legal rules that largely dovetail with the principles laid out by EU Commissioner Reding. Just two weeks ago, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizier announced that a a business consortia involving eight companies, including Google and Microsoft, had agreed to a new data protection code for spatial data services like Street View. Reflecting the "right to be forgotten" principle, individuals will gain the power to edit and even delete information collected about them. The "transparency" principle is reflected in the creation of central Internet portal will be established which will outline what info services are being provided in their city, what their rights are and how they can improve or obscure details they don't want shared publicly. Companies will have to give one month advance notice ahead of recording trips in a community. The Interior Minister indicated he wants to extend similar rules to all data collection on the Internet.
Lower Saxony, a German state, is moving to make it illegal to pass along IP addresses of web visitors to a third party without their permission, which has included requiring a web marketer to remove Google's AdSense and an Amazon widget that features books from the US online retailer, unless users give their permission before IP addresses of visitors are passed on to advertisers.
More creatively, the German Bavarian state government is working with technology companies to develop their own transparent system for providing spatial location information to consumers, as an alternative to Google's more intrusive system that tracks consumer movements. Spatial data would be collected without tracking individual SSID or personal payload data in personal wi-fi systems, while the databases will be compiled and downloaded directly to individual cell phones, meaning no company like Google will get to track your location every time you check your location -- a big plus from a privacy perspective.
U.S. Advocates Need to Demand More: Privacy legislation being discussed in the U.S. Congress looks to prevent only the most outrageous privacy violations. But the more the public understands that other countries are moving towards a more radical pro-consumer direction, one where consumers hold onto personal data unless they agree otherwise, the more likely they are to demand more comprehensive accountability for how companies like Google and other online retailers have used personal data for their own profit motives, instead of being guardians of individual privacy.
Crossposted from Tech-progress
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BTW, do you have a normal website I can visit. I don't use "Sh**ter" (or Faecesbook).
A far better strategy overall, imho, is making sure everything is transparent and that data that is out there is used for good purposes.
The companies we're talking about are masters of databases and this is just one more field in the database-- has the person in question given consent for resale of the information or not. Nothing very complicated at all. It might very well make those companies less profitable if all the information they've been using for free is no longer available for resale, but that's a different issue than it not being workable.
Page 3 of the Suspicious Activity Report says in part "The effectiveness of this database depends on collecting profiles of people who are NOT (emphasis added) known criminal or terrorists....and compile in-depth profiles of them."
Are you profiled? Am I? Is anyone who has ever criticized any part of our government's policies? Or citicized a politician? Or refused to donate to a campaign? Or __________________ - you fill in the blank. Who knows what reasons they will use to profile anyone?
So if you think businesses are invading your privacy, they are taking a page from our own government.
Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007
December 28, 2007 by pi
The 2007 International Privacy Ranking
State of Privacy Map
https://www.privacyinternational.org/article/leading-surveillance-societies-eu-and-world-2007
- OR -
http://goo.gl/4xQOH
The US did not fare well; we were considered an "endemic surveillance society," the lowest category.
NYPD Developing CCTV Camera System That Will Be Better Than London’s
http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/2010/05/13/nypd-developing-cctv-camera-system-that-will-be-better-than-london-s.html
every 10 ft ?? hardly - used only in crowded urban / city centre environments - shopping malls etc.
I have no problem with it at all.
It is probably a good idea for US technology companies to develop their systems based on EU privacy laws. They work well here and will probably be implemented in other regions including the US. To us the USA is like the wild west of non-privacy. Great for business, no so much for customers.
F & F.
/Snark