A Microsoft-sponsored survey released Wednesday found that almost half of Web users felt like they had already lost control of their own data while online – just days after the Australian government complianed that Microsoft’s suggested data policies might lead to just that result. Some 45% of the 1,000 users polled by Ipsos Public Affairs found that users feel that they “have little or no control over the personal information [...]
The agreement — unlike the $22.5 million agreement with Google announced yesterday — doesn’t call for any monetary penalty. It does, however, require Facebook to undergo privacy audits from an independent third party every two years for 20 years. Additionally, the company says it will now give consumers “clear and prominent” notice of its privacy practices…..
Microsoft has affirmed its commitment to shipping IE10 and Windows 8 with “Do Not Track” (DNT) enabled by default. In doing so, it’s set the stage for a major war over user privacy, and appointed itself an unofficial white knight of user privacy. Feel free to pause a moment and let the cognitive dissonance fade.
A few weeks ago, Tom Slee published “Seeing Like a Geek,” a thoughtful article on the dark side of open data. He starts with the story of a Dalit community in India, whose land was transferred to a group of higher cast Mudaliars through bureaucratic manipulation under the guise of standardizing and digitizing property records.