Heard the one about the new spam and privacy law? By Chris Williams. Published: 11th Dec 2003, 18:19:07 | Permalink | PrintableSite announcement It's not hard to believe that the new UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations are derived from an EU directive. Effective from today, the regulations hope to strengthen user privacy and quell spam although at least one trendy web company has revealed that no one cares. As many as 99 percent of UK websites are in fact giving the new law a cold shoulder.
As quoted in a BBC Online report, a WebAbacus spokesperson said, "Companies are either not aware of the legislation, or are ignoring it". The Information Comission is also "surprised".
Speaking to the Beeb, Phil Jones, assistant information commissioner, cried, "There should be transparency. People should know what is going on with the information collected about them. People should recognise that the information collected is only benign - but they should be alerted to the ways that data is going to be used."
Surprised he might be, but he hits the nail on the head as to why webmasters are perhaps reluctant to publish privacy policies. Just about every website that's medium sized or bigger, uses cookies and actively logs and analyses visitor traffic information. Webmasters like to know how many people are reading their content and also what kind of people they are and where they come from, in terms of geography and referers. However, it may drive away visitors - certainly the paranoid ones - when it's revealed exactly how much information is being logged, archived and passed onto third parties. It could simply be that webmasters are oblivious to the new law, or that they don't have the time or the skills to pen a public policy document.
However, now may be the time to get it all out in the open and educate web surfers. You can read more about the new directive from out-law.com and also, information on cookies from aboutcookies.org.
Finally, in accordance with the regulations, we've updated our About page with details on the drobe.co.uk privacy policy. Spend the afternoon writing and editing articles, or drawing up public policies, a tough decision.
Please take a few minutes to read it over and any comments are welcome.
Links
drobe.co.uk privacy policy
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