Last week saw Google slapped with a $22.5 million fine by the US Federal Trade Commission, in order to settle allegations that the search giant broke its privacy policy, by secretly tracking the browsing habits of millions of people who use Apple’s Safari browser.
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When it comes to defending online privacy not all governments, and indeed not all populations, are born equal. Nowhere is this most apparent than when looking at Germany and other European Union countries. Despite Germany’s role at the very heart of the EU, and despite the EU continually trying erode online freedoms, Germany’s government and legal system has taken a defiant stand on a number of online privacy issues, while the German people have been vociferous in their opposition to online privacy violation.
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The Australian government is proposing a new set of sweeping online surveillance powers as a part of a National Security Inquiry. If implemented, the new powers would see Australian ssuffer some of the most extreme online surveillance policies yet implemented in western democracies.
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Smartphones present a whole new arena of privacy concerns to anyone looking to protect their anonymity online. If you’re a very privacy conscious individual then you’ve probably already opted to avoid using an internet-enabled phone all together.
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If there’s one thing the world wide web has taught us it’s to expect a degree of incompetence when it comes to companies protecting your online privacy. Over the last decade or so there’s been numerous serious online data breaches from major corporations - whether it’s companies such as AOL displaying a bewildering lack of regard for their customers private search data, or Google outright spying on people within their own homes.
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Last week we revisited our round-up of threats to online privacy and scoured the internet for updates on their current status. Well, we probably should have waited for this week to undertake such an endeavour, because two of the internet’s biggest bogeymen (or is it bogeybills?
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Back in April we rounded up six major pieces of legislation that posed a threat to online privacy and online freedoms in the western world. In the last few months since that post there have been a few developments, with some bills winding their way further through state legal systems, and others wilting in the face of popular protest.
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In this article we take a quick look at the track records of western democratic governments when it comes to online privacy and data retention, rounding up the three best cases and the three worst cases.
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