The House of Commons’ Select Committee on Foreign Affairs have published a report on East Asia that strongly critisices internet corporations working for the Chinese government to filter, censor and control web content. Back in February, American politicians did not pull any punches when they condemned Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco for “decapitating the voice [...]

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The European Commission have launched a consultation titled “Content Online”. Topics that are asked about include DRM, network neutrality, privacy online, lack of interoperability, protection of public interests, competitiveness, P2P and piracy. Input to this consultation will help shape a Commission Communication on Content Online, due to be adopted at the end of the year. [...]

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We have seen attempts to add more legislation to voice over IP in America so I guess it was only a matter of time.
“The Guardian has learned that police and security agencies have been lobbying ministers and senior officials, expressing fears about the potential for voice-over-internet-protocol technologies to hide a caller’s identity. Their aim? To [...]

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Baroness Ashton has published a consultation paper on proposed custodial penalties for breaches of Section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998, which deals with unlawful obtaining of personal data. The main questions asked are should the maximum fine be raised? and is a jail sentence of up to 2 years the right length?.
“I have [...]

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The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act Part III gives law enforcement the power to serve notices requiring that encrypted material be “put into an intelligible form” (or as everyone else would say, decrypted). Under some circumstances the notices can require that encryption keys are handed over. At present Part III is not in force, but [...]

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Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, has published his annual report. The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent public body set up to promote access to official information and to protect personal information.
“Never before has the threat of intrusion to people’s privacy been such a risk. It is no wonder that the public now [...]

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Children are being threatened with exclusion from school unless they submit to being fingerprinted, reports Leave Them Kids Alone. This Daily Mirror story illustrates the size of the problem:
FURY erupted yesterday after it emerged an estimated 700,000 children are being fingerprinted at school.
Systems in 3,500 primary school libraries allow pupils to take out books by [...]

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Matt Mower has made a pledge on Pledgebank to write to a supplier - say a mobile phone company - to ask them what they know about him, as per the Data Protection Act, but he needs more people to sign up. The pledge in full:
“I will perform a Subject Access Request (Data Protection [...]

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The talk that I gave at Trinity College, Dublin, kindly hosted by Dr Eoin O’Dell as part of his Dublin Legal Workshop series and organised by Digital Rights Ireland, is now up online. You can watch the video of my talk and TJ McIntyre’s - Director of DRI - response, followed by the question and [...]

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