Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell gave a speech on Monday at a broadband conference in Stockholm entitled 'Technology and the Sovereignty of the Individual'. The message of the speech is clear; the Internet should not be regulated by government. In his speech he says, "To propel freedom’s momentum, policy makers should remember that, since their inception, the Internet and mobile connectivity have migrated further away from government control. As the result of longstanding international consensus, the Internet itself has become the greatest deregulatory success story of all time. To continue to promote freedom and prosperity, regulators should continue to rely... Continue reading

The Telegraph reports today that the Coalition Government has been building has been building a new identity system in the wake of the end of ID cards last year.The new system is due to be beta tested in October and it is intended to identify users of government websites. Details have yet to be announced so precisely how this system will work is still to be determined. Our friends at NO2ID have been notified of the new system. NO2ID General Secretary Guy Herbert said,“the devil will be in the details and especially the legal details …. and, “It’s not a... Continue reading

In a report published today called ‘Digital Opportunity’ Professor Ian Hargreaves and a panel of experts make ten recommendations to modernise the intellectual property framework in the UK so that it can support innovation and growth. The Prime Minister announced the IP framework review in November 2010 and the result of the review is the report published today. The key recommendations of the report are summarised below: Evidence – the IP framework should be driven by evidence based information especially around economic impact and claims to rights. International priorities – the UK should pursue interests in IP internationally especially around... Continue reading

Yesterday, Sony made the announcement in a press release that “user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network.” Sony went on to say that the company discovered the intrusion in conjunction with a major attack on their PlayStation Network and Qriocity sometime between April 17th and April 19th this year. The PSN and Qriocity networks remain offline for now as the investigation takes place. The personal data of nearly 70 million users have been potentially compromised during this intrusion. Information that may have been taken includes credit card information, name and personal... Continue reading

As no doubt you have heard by now, four out of the five judicial review claims on the Digital Economy Act brought to court by BT and TalkTalk have been dismissed. BT and TalkTalk argued that the Digital Economy Act was illegal under privacy and e-commerce laws, that the impact on business was disproportionate, and that the UK failed to notify the EU of the impending implementation of the law. Mr Justice Parker ruled today that all of these issues were not feasible reasons to deem the Digital Economy Act illegal except for the cost order which mandates that ISPs... Continue reading

On Tuesday, Robert Halfon MP defended the Open Internet in a debate in Parliament. In defending a free Internet from a assault on it by regulation, Mr. Halfon said, "when it comes to free expression, regulation is censorship by another name." The debate centred on a ten minute rule bill introduced by Mike Gapes MP called the Electoral Registration, Identification and Eligibility for Voting Bill. In this bill, Mr. Gapes proposed various remedies to electoral and voter fraud problems. However, at the end of his introductory speech, Mr. Gapes said, "We should tighten up the rules to regulate what can... Continue reading

As we reported yesterday, May 25 is the deadline for the implementation of the EU Privacy Directive across all member states. The US is also mulling over legislation that would effectively introduce a ‘bill of privacy rights’ codified in law. As everyone tries to figure out what privacy rights and privacy implementation looks like, two web browser makers have their own idea. Today, Mozilla introduced Firefox 4. Along with all the new bells and whistles, Firefox has a ‘do not track’ feature that allows the user to opt-out of cookie tracking and behavioural advertising feature. On the Mozilla blog it... Continue reading

On Friday, Yahoo! launched Ad Choices to help users understand online ads that are displayed to them on the Yahoo! network and to allow users to manage their advertising options. Ad Choices launches ahead of the May 25th deadline imposed by legislation from the EU for websites to provide for an ‘opt-out’ option from cookies and other online tracking used for advertising, among other data collection activities. Yahoo! is the first UK company to launch such an effort well in advance of May 25. Big Brother Watch has long advocated for industry lead ideas and solutions for privacy issues. Yahoo!’s... Continue reading

Computer giant Microsoft along with US federal law enforcement agencies seized a number of computers and other hardware associated with sending out the Rustock botnet. Rustock sends out hundreds of thousands of spam emails peddling everything from software to pharmaceuticals. And according to Symantec,the Rustock botnet spam ring was responsible for up to 39% of all spam last year. Microsoft's Digital Crime Unit and US Marshals raided a number of hosting facilities in order to remove zombie-like infected hardware. Microsoft had filed a lawsuit in District court pleading their case of malicious abuse of their Hotmail servers along with misuse... Continue reading

As the Freedom Bill makes its way through Parliament, privacy and rights groups, including our friends at Privacy International and NO2ID, have called for a consolidation of many current and proposed commissioners into on single commissioner. PCPro reports that at issue is the fact that in addition to three current roles, two new positions would be created. A Surveillance Camera Commissioner and a Biometrics Commissioner would be created along side the current Information Commissioner, the Chief Surveillance Commissioner and the Interception of Communications Commissioner. In a statement the privacy and rights group alliance said, “In matters of privacy and surveillance,... Continue reading

In a very interesting article on the Wall Street Journal, the concept of selling your own personal data on your own terms to who you want is becoming a big start up business. Start ups in this area offer anything from a paid commission to blocking the third party sale of your own data already housed by a third party. More established companies are getting into the business as well, the article says. Companies and investors both talk about the idea of a growing 'privacy market'. After a few false starts, companies like AOL or start ups like Allow offer... Continue reading

The net neutrality rules enacted by the Federal Communications Commission in the US late last December are facing tough opposition by the new Republican intake in the House of Representatives. As CNET and other media outlets have reported, net neutrality is facing not one, but two different types of legislation that, if passed, would stop net neutrality in its tracks. Last week the House held hearings on the new rules. The end result of these hearings, which set the tone for other battles in which the government has overstepped its authority in the eyes of the new intake, was a... Continue reading

In an interesting article over at CNET, an argument is made for users on Facebook to have the option to make themselves anonymous. A digital rights campaign group called Access Now has launched a campaign called "Unfriend the Dictators" and the sole purpose of this campaign is to make Facebook rethink its policy on attaching a name and person with a Facebook account. The idea behind the campaign would be to let protestors and anti-government campaigners go anonymous in order to hide from governmental regimes who are tracking down the personal information of protestors online. Facebook is, as critics of... Continue reading

The debate is heating up in the US over the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset legislation that was introduced last year to Congress. According to USA Today, the bill has been a much discussed topic at the RSA Internet security conference taking place in San Francisco this week. The legislation creates addition cyber security measures and adds emergency powers that can be enacted by the President. The bill allows for the President to shut down Internet access in the event of an emergency for up to 120 days. And this is the part that is causing the most controversy.... Continue reading

In a speech yesterday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for 'global Internet standards' that would allow for the freedom of information flow while limiting abuses and illegal activity online. In her speech she said, "Finding the proper measure for the Internet is critical because the qualities that make the Internet a force for unprecedented progress—its openness, its leveling effect, its reach and speed—also enable wrongdoing on an unprecedented scale." She went on to talk about what restrictive countries like China and Cuba are doing to curtail internet use while also hailing the use of the Internet in the... Continue reading

CNET news reported yesterday that data theft attacks having been plaguing the oil industry for years. According to McAfee, the publishers of the report on the attacks, there have been well co-ordinated attacks coming from China. The intention of the planned attacks has been to steal sensitive information in order to conduct espionage. McAfee's Chief Technology Officer said, "We have strong evidence suggesting that the attackers were based in China. The tools, techniques, and network activities used in these attacks originate primarily in China. These tools are widely available on the Chinese Web forums and tend to be used extensively... Continue reading

Today Google announced the roll out of a two step verification process for all of its customers. The feature has been available previously to Google Apps customers and will be available to all account holders over the next few weeks. The process involves verifying your identity first with the user name and password and then with a verification code sent via SMS. This code is automatically generated and sent at every login, though there is an option for your computer to remember the verification for up to 30 days. Of course you can always opt out of the process, but... Continue reading

An interesting post by David Kravets over on Wired has summed up the very paradox that is being experienced in the US over the recently Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) vote on Net Neutrality. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) favours Net Neutrality, but has recently said in a foundation blog that the FCC’s ruling opens itself up to regulate the Internet in many other and different ways. And here is the paradox: how can the Electronic Frontier Foundation be in favour of internet regulation, but cannot support the agency that regulates the Internet? In a blog on their site, Abigail Phillips,... Continue reading

Trend Micro has launched it's second annual video competition. The competition offers a first prize of $10,000 and six $500 for the best video on Internet safety and privacy. There are number of categories available and, yes, it is open to UK citizens. For more information, see the CNET article here or check out the What's Your Story website. Continue reading

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) ruled that tweets aren't private today, according to the BBC. Sarah Baskerville, an employee at the Department of Transport complained to the PCC when several of her tweets were published in the Daily Mail and Independent on Sunday. Ms. Baskerville made her complaint to the PCC by saying that her tweets were for her followers only and that she should have had a reasonable expectation of privacy. (Currently, you can only follow Ms. Baskerville on Twitter if she approves your request to follow her.) The PCC ruled, however, that the newspaper articles did not in... Continue reading

The Secondary Uses Service, part of the NHS’s National Programme for IT, has come under fire for the way that it expands access to patient data for research and academic purposes. Though this would seem like a positive use of patient data, the problem is the way that the data is anonymised. Patient names and addresses are replaced by their date of birth and postcode, which can easily identify an individual with a little bit of online digging. Dr. Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute along with Lindsey Brown, a researcher in public health ethics at Bristol University, and... Continue reading

The Secondary Uses Service, part of the NHS’s National Programme for IT, has come under fire for the way that it expands access to patient data for research and academic purposes. Though this would seem like a positive use of patient data, the problem is the way that the data is anonymised. Patient names and addresses are replaced by their date of birth and postcode, which can easily identify an individual with a little bit of online digging. Dr. Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute along with Lindsey Brown, a researcher in public health ethics at Bristol University, and... Continue reading