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.

The Privacy Myth

Jeremy Wagstaff, is a technology columnist, author and journalist, and writes for The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. He asks over at his Loose Wire blog whether we have overcome our concerns about privacy.

I can't speak for the younger generation, having been kicked out of it some years ago. But if we're talking more generally about folk who have embraced the Net in the past 10 years, I'd have to say I don't think it's that we don't care about privacy. We just don't understand it. In that sense nothing has changed. I think what is happening is the same as before: People don't really understand the privacy issues of what they're doing, because the technology, and its liberating sensuality, are moving faster than we can assimilate to our culture. (Jeremy Wagstaff)

J. Angelo Racoma analyses it in this post As The Media Becomes Social, Do We Really Still Care About Privacy? at BlogHerald.

Do we really care much about privacy? Most would probably consider privacy to be important. But I would agree with Jeremy Wagstaff that it’s because of the “liberating sensuality” of technology that many have preferred to go the easy way. (J. Angelo Racoma)

Privacy debate must enter 21st century

Bryan Glick publishs this article at computing.co.uk

Privacy debate must enter 21st century

Personal details are quickly becoming a new currency, but will this form of trading turn into a preserve of the rich?

When Information Commissioner Richard Thomas first coined the expression ‘sleepwalking into a surveillance society’ in an interview in 2004, he probably did not realise he was creating a catchphrase.

The quote has become a byword for the wide belief that technology inevitably means a dangerous loss of privacy.

The privacy debate is a looming crisis, which will have to be publicly tackled soon. Today, there is little rational debate on the subject – only opposing, black-or-white opinions.
Take the recent announcement that the government wants to join up its databases for better information sharing between departments. This is a sensible and much-needed objective, given that a bereaved family currently has to inform up to 44 different departments about a relative’s death, for example.

Read the full article