Lack of data protection / privacy in the USA [LWN.net]

Lack of data protection / privacy in the USA

Posted Jul 10, 2008 9:59 UTC (Thu) by morhippo (subscriber, #334)
Parent article: Notes on the Viacom ruling

It is unfortunate that the USA do not have an adequate level of privacy. Consumer data is free
game, can be used for any purpose without consent and material business decisions (think
credit decisions) are based on flimsy information, freely available to anyone without any
justification or controls.

It is also noteworthy that under European law any transfer of personal data by companies into
the USA is prohibited per se, unless individual consent is obtained or other exceptions apply
(e.g. participation of the US data recipient in the so-called "safe harbour" programme).

As a European lawyer, I try very hard not to share any personal data with companies based in
the USA for this very reason. 

Unfortunately most people do not care about there privacy at all (watch TV shows to see the
lack of decency in most people), or companies may feel more pain for abusing personal data.

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Lack of data protection / privacy in the USA

Posted Jul 10, 2008 12:45 UTC (Thu) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

So can I, as a citizen of the UK, prevent my personal data from being turned over to Viacom in
this way? Or did I already cede it to the USA when I accessed Youtube in the first place
(which is presumably hosted in the USA).

Lack of data protection / privacy in the USA

Posted Jul 10, 2008 12:50 UTC (Thu) by aanno (subscriber, #6082) [Link]

Well, USA is a bad place for privacy, but the EU with its new data retention policies (aka 'Vorratsdatenspeicherung') is hardly better. The internet was never made to protect your privacy, and the among of email spam is only one proof of this.

However, you could make legal use of anonymisation services like Jondos, Tor, or I2P .

But at present this is for nerds only and very slow...