Re: Fwd: Data Protection Law & Policy - invitation to write

[Elias Bizannes]

I'm not so sure about privacy. I've spent some time researching it and
I cannot find consistent definitions. In fact, if you type "define
privacy" into Google, my blog is one of the top search results. The
only reason I mention it, is because I get a stupid amount of traffic
from that search term, and I think everyone has a different
interpretation what it is. Even if we don't define it, simply showing
different approaches and implcications.

This whole policy area is so big, that I think this might be a useful
excercise to compile some research to help the Policy group. Can I
sugggest Gordon, you frame a conceptual framework of how we address
this article - and then, we can allocate specific research tasks. I
know Steve Greenberg would be interested to cotribute in this regard,
as he has a brain that not only likes to research this area but
probably has the most extensive background in this area of anyone in
the Project.

Maybe an approach can be

1) Data rights
- what countries around the world have legislated and the gap between
countries
- a survey of what other groups, like the Identity community, have
defined as data rights. Perhaps even some open questions we as the DP
project have about determininig what data rights are. We have to be
careful here to make it look like we are determining what rights
should be, but perhaps by drawing on discussions like the bill of
rights signed by Arrington, Scoble, McCrea et al we can shed some
contrasting lights on views

2) Terms of Service
- pick some of the major companies and show the inconsistencies
- Perhaps pick social computing sites that are in the top of the lists
like facebook, myspace but also other companies that are strong like
Asian social networks that are doing well

3) Data protection
- picking apart what the report states, and helping identify the gap
from current to ideal

Just some ideas to get this moving, happy to be challenged.

I'm cross posting this with the DataPortability Policy group, as they
should be driving research in this area.

[Gordon Rae]

Excellent suggestions, Elias. I'll wait for the debate to bubble, and see if
I can ferret out a journal article or two that might help me frame the
topic.

Gordon