Privacy starts with the body and extends to digital data. There are few rules governing what companies can do – yet people can’t effectively protect their own privacy.
An entire industry exists to trade on your personal data - everything from your shopping habits to your political views and medical conditions. The results can genuinely harm consumers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says the sheer dominance of Google and Facebook has distorted other businesses’ ability to compete on their own merits.
Consumers want better protection for their data, and businesses want clear national laws. Yet there is virtually no consensus about what a broad privacy law should entail.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claimed intent to focus on privacy will be hard to execute, will not happen soon and does not address major concerns about the company’s role in society.
While shifting cyber safety education beyond privacy is a step in the right direction, teachers already have to contend with an overcrowded curriculum.
Begun as part of efforts to preserve online anonymity and privacy, Freenet, Tor and the Invisible Internet Project are, like the rest of the web, home to both crime and free expression.
Three trends suggest people in less developed nations – who are coming online in greater numbers – use and trust the internet very differently those in more developed economies.