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Posts tagged Government
UK government proposes nationwide filtering of adult websites
Dec 23rd
The Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has proposed cutting off access to pornographic material at the ISP level in an interview with The Sunday Times. The government has been in talks with internet service providers (ISPs) to implement a system to filter access to pornographic content. Under these proposals, customers would have to contact their ISP to have the block removed.
Proponents of the proposal have noted that easy access to pornography can be damaging to children who view it. Miranda Suit, chair of the Safer Media organisation referred to a report compiled by the US-based Witherspoon Institute – “Children are becoming addicted in their teens to internet pornography. They are being mentally damaged so they cannot engage in intimate relationships.”
ISPA, the industry body for ISPs, has responded to the government proposal: “Ispa firmly believes that controls on children’s access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down.”
Critics of the plan have noted that filtering systems tend to be extremely indiscriminate and with alarming frequency block access to important material such as sex education resources. Civil rights organisations have also noted that the classification of which material is More >
Google significantly breached UK Data Protection Act
Nov 3rd
The search engine technology company Google has found to be in ‘significant breach’ of UK laws regarding data protection and privacy.
Whilst collecting images for its ‘Street View’ service last year, Google supposedly inadvertently collected ‘payload data’ from unsecured wireless networks as part of its efforts to improve location services that work off of nearby wi-fi hotspots.
‘Payload data’ contains snippets of data transferred over unsecured wireless networks. This may include snapshots of email addresses, passwords and other such data.
Google claims the code was left in the software accidentally and has promised to dispose of the data as soon as legally possible. It has consulted local governments everywhere that it has contravened the law to ensure the legality of such an action.
The ICO had previously ruled that no breach had occurred but the rulings in other countries such as Canada have prompted a U-turn. The Information Commissioner says no charges will be pressed but the data protection practices at Google will be audited.
Google has since appointed a ‘Head of Privacy’ to enforce better practice across engineering teams within the company.
Do you have a wireless network? Google may not be the only one listening in. Your network is secured if you have to type More >