Category Archives: Privacy

The shame continues

Posted on February 8, 2021 by John Carr

Last Thursday afternoon the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament met. The proceedings are viewable. The meeting was scheduled to take two hours.  It had several items to discuss. The earlier ones overran. When the question of the derogation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Consent, Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Microsoft, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Canadians, ethics and porn

Posted on February 6, 2021 by John Carr

A great many people in Canada are extremely angry and more than a little embarrassed at the fact that they provide a home and operational base for MindGeek, owners of the world’s largest pornography web sites, in particular Pornhub. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Consent, E-commerce, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Absurdities and atrocities

Posted on January 12, 2021 by John Carr

Voltaire famously said “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” History is littered with examples of this and last week in the USA we saw the same thing played out again. Lies and travelling trousers … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

A very bad day for children in Europe

Posted on December 21, 2020 by John Carr

If you live in an EU Member State and you have used Facebook Messenger or Instagram Direct today you probably saw this message. “Some features are not available. This is to respect new rules for messaging services in Europe. We’re … Continue reading →

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

A new industry award

Posted on December 17, 2020 by John Carr

On this crucial day for children, as the EU’s “trilogue” meets to decide the fate of proactive child protection tools within the 27 Member States, I have decided to inaugurate a new annual award. I think I will call it … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, E-commerce, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Half a pat on the back

Posted on December 8, 2020 by John Carr

Thanks to tremendous lobbying and campaigning work by children’s organizations from across the world we have won the first part of what we wanted to achieve. LIBE says “yes” MEPs were tremendously impressed by the breadth and scale of support … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | 2 Comments

The questions to be asked in Brussels

Posted on December 3, 2020 by John Carr

Crunch time approaches in Brussels. Members of the LIBE Committee and later the plenary need to focus on the following questions: When the GDPR was making its way through the European Instistitions do you think the co-legislators expressly intended to … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Privacy warriors arrive late

Posted on November 20, 2020 by John Carr

Governments and legislators stood by and watched for years while the internet exploded, bringing in its wake huge benefits but also several downsides, particularly for children. “Permissionless Innovation” was the watchword. We even created special legal immunities to help things … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

The wisdom of Max Schrems

Posted on November 18, 2020 by John Carr

I met Max Schrems at a seminar in a law school in the USA last year. He opened his remarks by saying in preparing his comments for the seminar he tried to talk to lawyers in the privacy community who … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, E-commerce, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Tagged | 2 Comments

Don’t be a child in Europe

Posted on November 12, 2020 by John Carr

Yesterday the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) published an opinion on the European Commission’s proposal for a temporary suspension of parts of the e-Privacy Directive of 2002. It is a weak Opinion, riddled with error. The good points the EDPS … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments