Privacy is getting compromised in the modern digital age come social networking – Part 4

Simpson is working with the World Wide Web Consortium on a “do not track” standard.

Giving that sense of control back to users might just be a wave that could catch on.

This week in the wake of Google’s new privacy policy, an informal Washington Post survey of nearly 14,000 readers showed nearly 66% were going to cancel their accounts in the wake of Google’s privacy changes.

Whether they can actually cut the cord is another story.

“I think the challenge is for the industry to help users feel in control of what is going on,” says Polonetsky. “Today the reaction is this [data collection/aggregation] is not something being done for them, it is something being done to them.”

If a shift in mindset comes about, it could be the start of significant progress that benefits both the Facebooks and the Googles of the world as well as the users of those sites and other technology that watches, records, and archives digital life.

“These are truly historical moments,” said Consumer Watchdog’s Simpson. “We are trying to sort out culturally what the appropriate bounds are to give people the kind of personal privacy that they have had historically but is now deeply threatened by technological change.”

EFF’s Reitman says we shouldn’t lose sight of the technological marvels developing before our eyes, nor the implications. “It has been a wonder to society, and in some respects a death-knell for individual privacy.”

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Jan 31 2012. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.