European Commission's child abuse web-blocking plans criticised

The European Commission wants countries to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to websites that contain material related to the sexual abuse of children. The move has been opposed by digital rights groups.

Some countries already operate systems of blocking, such as the UK's voluntary system run by the Internet Watch Foundation, a charity that is not a part of Government or the police, which maintains a list of sites which ISPs can choose to block.

The European Commission has proposed a new Directive on the sexual abuse and exploitation of children which proposes, amongst other measures, that countries force ISPs to block sites containing material depicting abuse.

"Member States shall take the necessary measures to obtain the removal of internet pages containing or disseminating child pornography," said a Commission statement summarising the proposed Directive.

Swedish firm offers to manage your online afterlife

Lisa Granberg and Elin Tybring run the small online company Webwill from an old industrial building not far from Stockholm's city center. The Web site has a simple design. At the top of the screen, large letters proclaim that this is where you should come to manage your digital identity in the afterlife.

As Granberg explains, the business concept is not complicated either. "You create an account and tell us which online services you use, and what changes we should make after your death," she told Deutsche Welle. "So if you're on Facebook, you give us your login name and password - which we save in encrypted form - along with instructions about whether we should deactivate your account or upload certain information. Once we're informed of your death, we execute your digital will, so to speak."

Privacy is still a social norm

There was a considerable amount of controversy recently when Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, the world's most popular online social network, was misquoted as saying that “privacy is no longer a social norm.” What he actually said was: “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”

But few appear to recall his exact words – the take-away (erroneous though it may be) was that Mr. Zuckerberg no longer considered privacy to be a social norm (reflected in the many calls I received asking me to respond to that statement). While I would not presume to speak for Mr. Zuckerberg, his staff confirmed that his words were taken out of context.

What I emphatically submit is that there is little evidence to change our view that privacy remains a social norm. Privacy relates to freedom of choice and control in the sphere of one's personal information – choices regarding what information you wish to share and, perhaps more important, what you do not want shared with others. What has changed, however, is the means by which personal information is now readily exchanged, at the speed of light.

School District Mulls Facial Recognition on Buses

A Seekonk, Massachusetts company wants to pilot its GPS and facial recognition technology on the district's school buses, reports EastBayRI.com. School committee members are reportedly weighing a proposal from Volpe Industries Inc. (VPI), which is developing a system that combines monitoring and biometric technologies, the report states. "The concept is to mount two small cameras, a mini computer and GPS tracking in each bus," VPI's president wrote in a proposal to district officials. He says the system could give school adminstrators real-time bus location information as well as a glimpse of the interiors of all buses on which the technology is deployed.

'Minority Report' digital billboard 'watches consumers shop'

 Engineers have developed the billboard, similar to one used in the Tom Cruise blockbuster, that uses in built cameras to instantly identifies a shopper’s age and gender as they walk past.

The facial-recognition system, called the Next Generation Digital Signage Solution, then offers consumers a product it thinks is suited to their demographic.

Experts said the technology, being developed by NEC, the Japanese electronics company, would allow advertisers to develop more accurate campaigns that were suited to consumers.

But critics warned it was an invasion of privacy, a claim denied by the company.

Officials claimed a person would remain anonymous and that images of their face would be immediately erased.

The technology, currently being tested in major shopping centres throughout Japan, is similar to that featured in Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood film.