Despite Wikileaks, Clinton still preaching on an open internet
In January last year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a landmark speech entitled “Remarks on Internet Freedom“. The speech was noteworthy for its clear and unambiguous rejection of all forms of censorship and network control. Coming on the heels of Iran’s presidential elections and Chinese cyber-attacks, it seemed the U.S. was drawing a […]
Conroy not fooling anyone on an open internet
The internet freedom business is doing a roaring trade these days. Things started picking up early last year with Hillary Clinton’s landmark speech, “Remarks on internet Freedom,” which equated an open internet with human rights and condemned state-sponsored censorship of the net. Then came the revelations by Wikileaks, starting with the “Collateral Murder” video and […]
Google getting on board, but can we stop behavioural tracking?
In the last year, the idea of a “do not track” mechanism for web surfers has gained currency. The name invokes the idea of the do-not-call list for telemarketers, which those of us who prefer eating dinner undisturbed will be well familiar. With Google this week endorsing the concept via its Chrome web browser, will […]
Time to retire classification
(From an opinion piece published on ABC Online). Before it came along, we were served by a revolving series of moral panics, changing censorship ministers and a patchwork of different state systems. Many books and films were banned that today would hardly warrant a mention – I wonder how many high schools would not allow […]
Facebook address move raises new privacy worries
Update 19/1/11 10am: Looks like Facebook have suspended this scary new feature for now. Facebook, by now almost synonymous with online privacy woes, has made another change to its platform that has privacy experts worried. The latest move, reported in several outlets, expands the information available to Facebook application developers. Now, users can grant applications […]