Interesting news article about "big data" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Big data has become quite the buzz word, and now "smart data" is starting to eclipse it (at least in some circles).
Anyhow,an interesting tidbit about the need for consistent privacy policies/laws:
Earlier this week in Munich, Viviane Reding, the European justice commissioner, repeatedly talked about data in respect to privacy. Ms. Reding said there were 27 laws that apply to data in Europe, most of which date back more than a decade and don’t properly protect consumers today.
Ms. Reding outlined new regulations that were presented in Brussels on Wednesday and were designed to implement one sweeping data protection regulation that would apply to all of Europe.
No different here in the States. Each state has the right to have their own privacy laws. However, once you try to start sharing data between those states, it becomes a nightmare determining who can see what.
So is anyone in the U.S. trying to accomplish a similar goal of a "one sweeping data protection regulation"? Seems like it would be a stretch (especially to create one), but some consolidation/agreement is definitely needed.
GigaOM has a post today entitled
Has Dropbox set the stage for a privacy revolution detailing the last several "fun" months at Dropbox, and their recent change of their terms of service to make their privacy policies clear. What I found interesting is that when they first tried to clarify their policies, there was actually
more uproar from customers.
Then, on July 1, when Dropbox tried to do right by its users by clearing up much of the language in its terms of service, privacy policy and security overview, another uproar ensued. It appears this was the first time many customers bothered to read these documents, because the commenters on a blog post announcing the changes, as well as forum members across the web, began loudly criticizing certain Dropbox practices.
This makes sense...I can tell you that I almost NEVER read the
TOS when signing up for a service.
Although the article make the point that this could set the stage for a privacy revolution, I think actions like these are hopefully bigger. Yes, making privacy policies clear is important due to recent privacy violations. But how about making security practices just as clear? There have been so many hacks lately that adding clarity to security practices (whether in the TOS or elsewhere) could have real value.
If I was idealistic (I'm not), it would be great if there was some sort of neutral party that rated the privacy and security policies of websites and posted them in a public location. Similar to the mileage ratings for cars, the consumer could decide based off the rating. However, not sure you can have a truly neutral party that will give an accurate rating. And if it is anything like the standards for MPG and cell phone battery life, the numbers would be next to useless.
I remembered reading about this awhile back, but didn't really think about making the change to prevent my pictures from becoming ads. To prevent this:
- Go to Settings -> Privacy Settings
- Click on News Feed and Wall
- Click on the Facebook Ads tab
- Change the Appearance in Facebook Ads to No One.
Of course, if you want to try to be a FB star, you can just leave it alone!
I grew up as a techie and first got hooked using an old Texas Instruments programming in Basic ("Hello World" app is my fav) and then learned the fun of "integration" making my PCjr actually run the old Sierra games I wanted to play. After a lot of fun at college, I found myself entrenched in the government technology world leading projects and integrating systems for the past 11+ years. I have extensive experience in technical project management, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Collaboration Technologies, Information Sharing, and Secure Systems Integration.