14 DAY TRIAL // January the 28th was named, in 2007, Data Privacy Day in the United States and in 27 European countries, by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and it was celebrated properly yesterday, with a conference at Duke University in North Carolina. Google attended, as a symbol of good will and to show that ,whatever issues it had in the past related to this, they've come over.
The campaign that the Mountain View based company has, backing up its openness claims, is a lengthy one and very exquisite, at that. It released a new video, embedded below, added to the already existing series on YouTube, and furthermore it released a PDF document with an educational purpose about online data privacy. Horvath breaks it down, quoted by Greg Sterling of Search Engine Land: "We've also developed a privacy booklet that you can download to get an in-depth look at our privacy practices and approach, and have co-sponsored the creation of educational materials on teen online privacy for parents and educators. The goal of all these efforts is to help educate you about online data privacy so that you can make more informed choices about how you use online products and services."
Meanwhile, on the same day, US President George W. Bush is bringing forth a cybersecurity initiative that would, in short, spy on the online activity that residents do and collects information about them. The Wall Street Journal says that "President Bush has promised a frugal budget proposal next month, but one big-ticket item is stirring controversy: an estimated $6 billion to build a secretive system protecting U.S. communication networks from attacks by terrorists, spies and hackers . . . Protecting private computer systems would likely require the government to install sensors on private, company networks, officials familiar with the initiative said. Amid divisiveness about other government-surveillance programs, having the government monitor Internet traffic, even in the name of national security, will be a hard sell to Congress and the public."
Now how's about that for a contradiction? I mean George the Second was going to push this, he could have at least waited a bit longer. At any rate, with one pulling in one direction and the other in the opposite, many things will not get done. Pray and hope that they come to an agreement sometime soon.