The BBC looks at the year that was 2010 from a privacy perspective. Exploring high-profile breaches of the past year, the report considers the implications of government and private-sector privacy decisions for the future. It suggests that "an interesting twist in 2010's privacy story" is that while private-sector organizations have been taken to task on privacy issues, "governments seem intent on increasing their snooping powers." When it comes to social networking, Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute says the environment "is designed to encourage people to share. Often the default setting is privacy-unfriendly." The report also suggests that personal information "is fast becoming the most important commodity online."
Full Story