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Article 29

International Civil Society Coalition To Discuss Global Privacy Standards

Urdu Translation of The Public Voice Press Release: International Civil Society Coalition To Discuss Global Privacy Standards

Social Network Privacy Study Reports Serious Concerns


A Cambridge University study covering 45 social networks has reported serious concerns about the extent such sites fail to keep users' personal information private. While inaccurate privacy policies and inaccessible guidelines have been reported before, the Cambridge report provides numerical statistics to confirm their scope. The researchers found faults with the amount of personal information required to be handed over, the standards of encryption protocols, default privacy settings, and confusing user-interfaces. Testing each site against 260 criteria, the researchers examined features such as log-in procedures and configuration controls. The study concluded that "the naive application of utility maximization theory fails to capture all the intricacies of the market for privacy in social networking." The report also stated that "a major problem was the lack of accessible information for users, encouraged by the sites' strong incentives to limit privacy salience as part of the privacy communication game: the data suggests that sites may have evolved specifically to communicate differently to users with different levels of privacy concern."

Recently, the Canadian Privacy Commissioner held that although Facebook had taken some steps to address privacy, more safeguards were necessary. Also, Article 29 Working Party released an Opinion of Social Networking Sites

 
 

Take Action

PARTICIPATE NOW

European Commission: Consultation on Personal Data Protection

Consultation due on December 31, 2009

 

Events

CALENDAR FOR CIVIL SOCIETY NETWORKING

This is a listing of events which may be useful for civil society to participate, connect and network on issues relating to information and communication technologies and policies.

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Past Events

Seoul logo

OECD 2008 Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy

Terra Incognita logo

Civil Society Privacy Conference
Montreal
Sept. 25, 2007

OECD Participative Web Forum
Ottawa
Oct. 3, 2007

Past Public Events

Cape Town Conference »

Wroclaw Conference »

Buenos Aires Conference »

Participation in the World Summit on the Information Society Internet Governance Caucus »

Civil Society Background Paper


Background paper logo