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The battle for online privacy

Comp159 The Telegraph carries a great piece today from my old school chum Milo Yiannopoulos regarding the losing battle the British people are fighting to protect their online privacy.

Introducing his piece, Milo says:

"Increasingly, online privacy norms – the limits of what can acceptably be done with our data – are being established not by lawmakers, nor by the public, whose data is at stake, but by precisely the companies who have the most interest in exploiting our personal information for profit"

Sadly, I am forced to agree with him that this is indeed the case – particularly in light of the Information Commissioner's intransigence in relation to Google's violation of the Data Protection Act. The sad thing is, it needn't be this way but for the existence of a commissioner with a dogged commitment to personal privacy issues.


He further adds:

"That the EU should have to contemplate legislation to establish an online "right to be forgotten" is almost hilarious"

This is a fair point. While the European Commission's proposed legislation is a step in the right direction, but it is humiliating that we have to rely on the supranational body in order to implement what should really be done at a national level. Once again, this takes us back to the Information Commissioner who has the tools to take on companies like Facebook and Google yet opts not to use them for fear of being accused to taking "knee-jerk" action. The ICO shouldn't think of doing it's job as a "knee jerk" reaction but simply "action".

Finally, he concludes:

"The reality of the internet today is that on pretty much any top 100 website, your browsing habits will be scanned, stored and utilised by dozens of advertising networks"

In this respect, Big Brother Watch can help. One of the chief reasons for the increasing proliferation of ads that are seemingly well-targeted towards individual internet users is the use of online “behavioural analysis” techniques. Such targeting is made possible as a result of ‘Cookies’, a small digital record planted on your computer which can record your site preferences and profile information for advertisers. In order to "opt-out" from receiving cookies from internet's largest advertisers, click here.

Click here to read the full piece – it's well worth a look.

By Daniel Hamilton

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Online privacy
  • NeverSurrender

    This has been said before but, here goes. A huge problem is that the default settings of most browsers are very insecure as regards to privacy and the average user has neither the time, inclination or, knowledge to fix this. I believe that every browser should be configured to block all cookies, Flash cookies, Java and, Javascript by default and that users should be able to choose on a site by site basis what features to permit. My browser is configured this way and I am not troubled by unauthorised behavioural analysis techniques, advertising e.t.c. I do not have to “opt-out” because I do not show up on their radar. And, for goodness sake has no one heard of a SSH proxy or secure VPN? Nothing can protect you completely from being tracked but you can make things very difficult for anyone trying to do so. It should not be up to the user to find out everything about protecting themselves because most people don’t bother or care about this, until of course they find out what’s going on. Browsers and computers should be set up to provide maximum protection from the first time that they are switched on and it should be made easy for the user to make informed decisions about just how much tracking they allow. If I were a cynical person I might think that software and computer producers had something to gain from this lack of security/privacy. Surely not?

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