Posted: Friday, 4 January 2019 @ 13:43
With the 25th anniversary of the founding of the world wide web, there are now calls led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee for a Digital Bill of Rights in the UK.
I think one of the complaints that people have about our political classes is that they seem out of touch with everyday issues.
We will see if next year anyone picks up the baton.
Research just published claims to show that 40 percent of adults in the UK have lost trust in the web over the last year - a situation that has been caused by a rising tide of government surveillance and privacy breaches..
The research also found that 57 percent of respondents think there should be a `Digital Bill of Rights' in the UK. .
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, said that a trusted Web is crucial to the UK's future..
"Our tech sector has led the way out of recession, creating more jobs than any other industry in recent years. A Britain in which people no longer trust the Web as a safe and private place will be a Britain that is less free, less creative and ultimately less prosperous," he said, adding that the 2015 General Election is an opportunity for party leaders to enact a new digital bill of rights.".
According to Berners-Lee libel laws are reasonable. Destroying facts that are true is much more worrying. .
He also refers to the fact that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Google should heed those seeking the “right to be forgotten” and hide embarrassing stories from search engine results. .
The rationale was to help ordinary people escape their past, especially if caught in compromising situations.
As ever this is a balancing act between the potency of the search engine which can remember many details about us and the right to some privacy and this has been covered by us previously.
I think one of the problems we have is that the political classes simply do not get it and I wonder if they have the flair to do what is right.