Category Archives: Privacy

Children’s groups speak out

Posted on September 9, 2020 by

The EU held a consultation on the upcoming Digital Services Act. It closed yesterday. Here is a link to the document I submitted with the support of one or more children’s groups from 15 Member States. What with the holiday … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Child abuse images, Consent, Default settings, E-commerce, Internet governance, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

Beware the harmful algorithm

Posted on August 16, 2020 by

These past few days British media outlets have been full of stories about the scandalous way 17 and 18 year olds have been dealt with following the cancellation of ‘A’ Level exams because of the virus.  At the root of … Continue reading →

Posted in Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

Age verification. Movement in South Africa

Posted on August 4, 2020 by

The South African Film Board is charged with developing regulations to give effect to their recently adopted law requiring age verification for pornography sites. A consultation  was held on how the regulations might be implemented. It closed yesterday. After thanking … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

The EU’s strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse

Posted on July 26, 2020 by

I said in an earlier blog I would write more fully about the announcement last week of the European Commission’ s new strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse. I wrote that when I had only skimmed … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

The agony and the ecstasy – all in the same day

Posted on July 24, 2020 by

Regular readers will recall last year I got very  engaged with discussions on the new e-Privacy Regulation being drawn up in Brussels. They were threatening to outlaw the use of PhotoDNA and similar tools by certain types of electronic communications … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Microsoft, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | 1 Comment

Age verification marches on

Posted on July 21, 2020 by

This week saw the publication of  a report of a conference which I organized with the help of The Reward Foundation. What did we look at? With the enormous advances that have been made in recent years in the field … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

UK Government in court over age verification

Posted on July 15, 2020 by

The Government is in court tomorrow over its failure to implement age verification for pornography sites. Fingers crossed.

Posted in Age verification, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

Business goes where Governments fear to tread

Posted on June 28, 2020 by

It’s a funny old world. Governments bang on about the unacceptable nature of some of the stuff that regularly appears on social media. They call on the platforms to do something about it and, immediately, a whole army of predictable … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

Problems with the GDPR

Posted on June 7, 2020 by

The EU recently undertook a review of the first two years of the operation of the GDPR. If you missed it you are not alone. The existence of the review was not well publicised. It will report soon but the … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Child abuse images, Consent, Default settings, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

President Trump gets it wrong

Posted on May 29, 2020 by

So it wasn’t an empty threat.  President Trump did it. He signed an Executive Order which, in essence, seeks to change the law on platform immunity, as conferred by s.230, Communications Decency Act 1996. It is doubtful the Executive Order … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation