Category Archives: Privacy

President Trump gets it wrong

Posted on May 29, 2020 by John Carr

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 | Leave a comment

Good but nowhere near good enough

Posted on May 27, 2020 by John Carr

Last Thursday Facebook made an announcement about its plans for Messenger. In truth the substance of the announcement concerned great stuff I thought they were already doing, at least on their main Facebook platform, so discovering they were now going … Continue reading →

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

Failures of contingency planning worsened by delay

Posted on May 18, 2020 by John Carr

UK Children’s organizations have written a letter of protest to the Government. The media have covered in some detail certain headline failures of contingency planning in relation to Covid-19 and lockdown. Less well remarked has been the failure of contingency … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Consent, Default settings, E-commerce, Facebook, Google, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Enfeebled enforcers

Posted on May 4, 2020 by John Carr

In yesterday’s “Observer” the ever-excellent John Naughton drew attention to a survey carried out by a new kid on the block, a company called “Brave”.  And they obviously are because Brave is trying to get going in the web browser … Continue reading →

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After the war is over

Posted on April 13, 2020 by John Carr

It is impossible for anyone to say with any level of certainty what the post-pandemic world will look like. Some pundits believe everything will be completely different. Rather more seem to be saying nothing much will change or things could … Continue reading →

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

Meet the “cappers” or, rather, don’t

Posted on March 31, 2020 by John Carr

“Cappers” is a term that has been around for a while.  Click here  for a great explanation from Signy Arnason, Associate Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “Capping” is about tricking children into doing something inappropriate, for example … Continue reading →

Posted in CEOP, Child abuse images, Default settings, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

More on the risks associated with strong encryption

Posted on March 25, 2020 by John Carr

I hope someone in Facebook reads this and passes a message up the line. I am sure it will only add to the substantial number they have already received on exactly the same point. Cho Joo-bin lives in South Korea. … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Sad, but unfortunately not surprising

Posted on March 19, 2020 by John Carr

Free speech and civil liberties organizations do a hugely important job scrutinizing the activities of state agencies. However, you are forced to wonder if, sometimes, they don’t completely lose touch with common humanity. The Electronic Frontier Foundation  (EFF)has just served … Continue reading →

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

More progress in the fight against online child sex abuse

Posted on March 13, 2020 by John Carr

Last week representatives from the Governments of the “Five Eyes” nations, (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA) gathered in Washington DC. They endorsed a set of eleven voluntary principles to combat a range of online threats to … Continue reading →

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

Good news from Australia

Posted on March 5, 2020 by John Carr

Good news from Australia. A Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry today publishes its findings, coming down in favour of age verification as an important tool to help keep pornography away from the eyes of people it was never meant for, namely … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment