U-turns on UK data laws

Tudo a ver com a discussão de algumas aulas passadas. Sobre o poder que o controle das informações pode dar para as autoridades ou para os donos dos meio de comunicacao. A reportagem abaixo reflete um problema que é encarado atualmente na Europa, particularmente no Reino Unido. Ate que ponto os cidadãos estão tem suas informações protegidas??? Home Office U-turns on data laws The Home Office has agreed to meet civil liberties groups as part of a consultation it is conducting into UK interception laws. The Open Rights Group and other organisations are concerned that the consultation is being rushed through with minimum publicity. They want to see strong laws to protect citizens who have had their e-mail or web traffic collected without consent. The consultation has been forced on the UK by the European Commission. Initially the Home Office said a meeting with civil society groups was unecessary but it has u-turned on that and will meet ORG and others early this week. It has also extended the consultation deadline until 17 Deceomber. The consultation on possible changes to the UK's data laws follows an EC investigation into how Phorm, a controversial ad-tracking technology, was rolled out in the UK. As part of that investigation, the EC found that the UK currently has no legal redress for citizens who think that their web browsing or e-mail has been monitored unlawfully. Neither does it have any official body to deal with such complaints. This puts the UK in breach of the European e-Privacy directive and has forced the Home Office to reconsider its Ripa (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) legislation. Any change to Ripa could have implications for firms which have intercepted data without permission, such as Google, which accidentally collected huge amounts of private data on unsecured wi-fi networks when it was gathering information for its Street View service. It could also provide redress for the thousands of BT customers who took part in Phorm trials without giving their consent. Phorm is one of a growing number of firms which wants to track web behaviour in order to better target advertisements. BT was among a handful of UK ISPs to sign up to the scheme and initially carried out a series of trials without telling customers they were taking part.