European privacy regulators could be about to throw a spanner into the works of attempts by social networking sites such as Facebook to find new ways to increase profits as they try to restrict the way internet groups release personal data.

The European move marks the first attempt by regulators to address the “open” internet platforms that the social networks, led by Facebook, have rushed to create. By letting other applications ride on top of their systems, tapping into personal data about their members, the networks have sought both to tie in users for longer and create money-making opportunities.

Source: FT.com

The Home Secretary today makes a delayed announcement of a consultation on proposals for the so-called Intercept Modernisation Programme. It has been widely reported for some months, and plans were acknowledged by Lord West the security minister last week, that this would place Home Office ‘probes’ in the datacentres of every British internet provider at an estimated cost of £12 billion.

This would allow direct skimming of all traffic, making it massively easier to intercept email and monitor individual’s web use using existing powers. The Home Office would become a clearing-house, able to provide data ad lib to other government agencies. It would also become possible for the first time to collect and store details of all communications by everyone in the country so that government agencies could investigate friendship networks and personal habits using data-mining techniques.

Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID said:

‘Just a week after the Home Secretary announced a public consultation on some trivial trimming of local authority surveillance, we have this: a proposal for powers more intrusive than any police state in history.

‘Ministers are making a distinction between content and communications data into sound-bite of the year. But it is spurious. Officials from dozens of departments and quangos could know what you read online, and who all your friends are, who you emailed, when, and where you were when you did so - all without a warrant. Tracking your your every move is more efficiently creepy than reading your letters.’

Source:NO2ID Press Release

Smith said creating a single database run by the state to hold such personal data would amount to an extreme solution representing an unwarranted intrusion of personal privacy. Instead the Home Office is looking at a £2bn solution that would involve requiring communications companies such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and others to retain such personal data for up to 12 months.
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Instead they will have to apply for the data to be released to them on a case-by-case basis to each individual telecoms and internet company.

Source: The Guardian

… Another privacy concern repeatedly mentioned to the European Commission these days is behavioural advertisement: systems that monitor internet users’ web browsing to better target them with advertisements. Now, European privacy rules are crystal clear: a person’s information can only be used with their prior consent. And ee cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored, in exchange for a promise of “more relevant” advertisement! The Commission is closely monitoring the use of behavioural advertising to ensure respect for our privacy rights. I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty….

Source: European Commission, Viviane Reding
There is a video of her full speech and also a transcript.

YouTube is blocking all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the Performing Right Society (PRS).

Source : BBC News

In summary, the Taskforce makes the following recommendations:
Recommendation 1
Public servants should take part in online peer support forums as a matter of course. Public bodies should investigate and publish lists of the major forums in their areas of responsibility and engage with these following a published plan.  A cross-governmental list and set of Departmental plans should be published by the Cabinet Office by Q3 2009 with a follow up report on progress in Q1 2010.  This builds on the enabling work advised by the Taskforce on the publication of social media guidance for civil servants.
Recommendation 2
Public servants will require adequate internet access to take part in social media as part of their job.  The Cabinet Office should work with staff involved in setting access rules and defining standard browser capabilities and issue guidance.
Recommendation 3
Unlock innovation in leading public sector sites using a ‘backstage model’, a standing open online innovation space allowing the general public and staff to co-create information-based public services.  This capability should be a standard element of public information service design. The government should build on the new backstage service for Directgov.
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Recommendation 25
The government should bring forward a plan to work with the higher education community on an increased UK capacity and capability for data mashing, including a focal point or virtual centre of excellence.  The Cabinet Office should bring forward a plan by Q3 2009.

Source: Cabinet Office

Also see these videos where Richard Allan the Taskforce Chair talks about the report. He is also on the Open Rights Group advisory council.

Surfing the internet, playing games and hanging out on social networks are important for teen development, a large study of online use has revealed. The report counters the stereotypical view held by many parents and teachers that such activity is a waste of time. More than 800 teenagers and parents took part in the three-year US project.

Source: BBC

The government is drawing up plans to give the police and security and intelligence agencies new powers to access personal data held by internet services, including social network sites such as Facebook and Bebo and gaming networks. The move, heralded in this morning’s speech on international terrorism by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is prompted by concern that criminals and terrorists are using websites as a way of concealing their communications, according to Whitehall security sources.

Source: The Guardian

Internet users will be protected from abusive bloggers and malicious Facebook postings under proposals to set up an independent internet watchdog … The body, made up of industry representatives, would be responsible for drawing up guidelines that social networking sites, the blogosphere, website owners and search engines would be expected to follow.

Source: Nicole Martin writing for The Telegraph (via Tony’s Blog)

Via Deutsche Welle:

“The big problem with social networks is that you don’t know just who can poke around in there,” says Henry Krasemann, an expert at the Independent Centre for Data Protection for Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany … that’s why data protection specialists recommend storing as little private information as possible online.

“Under no circumstances should you be putting bikini or party photos up onto a network of that kind,” says Constanze Kurz, spokeswoman for the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) in Berlin.