EU data regulator says Internet addresses are personal information

Article published at Technology Review

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- IP addresses, string of numbers that identify computers on the Internet, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union's group of data privacy regulators said Monday.

Germany's data protection commissioner, Peter Scharr, leads the EU group preparing a report on how well the privacy policies of Internet search engines operated by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others comply with EU privacy law.

He told a European Parliament hearing on online data protection that when someone is identified by an IP, or Internet protocol, address ''then it has to be regarded as personal data.''

His view differs from that of Google, which insists an IP address merely identifies the location of a computer, not who the individual user is -- something strictly true but which does not recognize that many people regularly use the same computer terminal and IP address.

Scharr acknowledged that IP addresses for a computer may not always be personal or linked to an individual. For example, some computers in Internet cafes or offices are used by several people.

But these exceptions have not stopped the emergence of a host of ''whois'' Internet sites that apply the general rule that typing in an IP address will generate a name for the person or company linked to it.

Treating IP addresses as personal information would have implications for how search engines record data.

Google led the pack by being the first last year to cut the time it stored search information to 18 months. It also reduced the time limit on the cookies that collect information on how people use the Internet from a default of 30 years to an automatic expiration in two years.

But a privacy advocate at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, said it was ''absurd'' for Google to claim that stripping out the last two figures from the stored IP address made the address impossible to identify by making it one of 256 possible configurations.


Full article at Technology Review

The big ones . . .

Google Adopts New Privacy Measures

Google plans to dump search query data after some 18 to 24 months in a move designed to ease concerns over privacy, privacy advocates are saying that Google's privacy plans do not go far enough. . .

If you want to know more, read the log retention FAQ (PDF).

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Microsoft executive: Digital privacy is 'issue of our time'

Digital privacy will be one of the biggest legal issues of the century, a senior Microsoft executive predicted in a meeting with a group of University of Michigan law students last week.Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for legal and corporate affairs, addressed "The Role of Global Companies in the Development and Implementation of International Law" in his talk at U-M's Hutchins Hall.

Sociology at Microsoft

Image source wikipedia. Nicolas de Fer: Veue de Constantinople, Paris 1696, from: Les Forces De L'Europe, Ou Description Des Principales Villes, 8 / 23

Interview published at Technology Review

Marc Smith, the senior research sociologist at Microsoft Research, believes that now is a good time to practice his trade. Thanks to the Internet, there is unprecedented access to sociological data. And thanks to computers, sociologists are better able to sift through that data, find trends, and test models.

At Microsoft, Smith uses public Internet data to look at the social phenomenon of online communities, and he tries to make them better for people and better for business. He recently gave a presentation regarding his work at Microsoft's TechFest in Redmond, WA, an annual event at which Microsoft researchers from around the world share their latest work. Technology Review caught up with Smith to ask him about the field of cybersociology.

Read the interview

Gates wants new privacy law

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates asked the U.S. Congress to pass a comprehensive privacy law this year, allowing consumers to control how their personal information is used.

Gates repeated past Microsoft calls for a wide-ranging privacy law during a speech at advocacy group the Center for Democracy and Technology’s (CDT) annual gala dinner Wednesday. A comprehensive privacy law should allow consumers to control their personal data, provide transparency about what their data is used for, and require they be notified when their data has been compromised, Gates said.

Gates said he believes the United States can achieve a balance between privacy and protecting the country against terrorists and other criminals. But the balance will not be an easy one to create, he said.

While many U.S. residents would say they want as much privacy "as possible," law enforcement needs to be able to track criminals, Gates said. "These privacy issues are not as easy as you might think," he told the crowd

European Privacy Institute

Source: Cordis News

An initiative has been launched to lobby for a permanent European institute to foster a synthesis between technology and privacy.

The European Privacy Institute Initiative already involves nearly 40 experts - mainly academics but also business associates and an official from the European Commission. Driving the initiative is a desire to examine how values like privacy and ethics can be integrated into future product designs and technologies.

The group points out that a number of global companies, such as IBM, Microsoft and KPMG are conducting research into privacy issues. In Europe, a number of EU-funded projects are doing the same. These include PRIME (Privacy and Identity Management for Europe), FIDIS (Future of Identity in the Information Society), and BITE (Biometric Identification Technology Ethics). Universities around Europe are also carrying out their own research projects.

An Executive Committee has been created to present the idea to the EU institutions. The three Committee members represent a university, the director of a research consortium and the CEO of the European Biometric Forum. A Scientific Advisory Committee has been established to assist the Executive Committee.

Read the full article at Cordis

Now Internet Code to Protect Privacy

Article published at Techtree

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and Vodafone have signed an agreement with online activists, human rights groups, and press freedom groups to draw up an Internet code of conduct to protect free speech and privacy of Web users.

These four companies will together develop a code of conduct with a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote freedom of expression and privacy rights.

Besides, they will establish a set of rules that will govern how they deal with censorship and other restrictions on human rights. In a joint statement, the companies said that they aim to come up with a code of conduct by the end of this year that would counter such trends as the increased jailing of Internet journalists, monitoring of legitimate online activity, and censorship.

They would also develop a framework that would hold signatories accountable for their actions in the areas of freedom of expression and privacy rights.

According to a Google spokesman, Google has helped initiate this process as part of their commitment to protecting human rights and privacy of their users around the world. And, they look forward to working with all the parties in an effort to arrive at global principles that can help them protect Internet users in countries that seek to curtail free expression

Read the full article