Internet Privacy one step at a time

When George Orwell told us big brother was watching his future detailed a world where government had absolute control over information and power. How different we are 24 years after his predictions, in a world where the greatest threat to privacy and personal information is not the public sector rather the private one. Whether it's a search engine, major software developers, e-mail services, mal-ware, spyware or internet service providers, it seems like someone is always trying to figure out where we're going on the internet, what we're looking at and the best way to sell things to us.

Enter the government, Orwell's amorphous antagonist, but in this future might actually be that which can save us from Big Brother, or whoever is watching. There has been a flurry of stories coming out of the New York Times lately which indicate some sort of progress on internet privacy rules. However, news from the Times Online and the Met News seem to be indicating a strong resistance to any European style privacy rules.

What needs to happen in order for these restrictions to have any real teeth is international cooperation. The internet, more than television print or radio, is an a global medium which requires global solutions. But, in this climate, as protectionism takes hold there's going to be a lot of resistance for international cooperation on anything.

I think that while internet privacy won't likely be discussed at the G20 next month, it's fate is largely bound to the success of those talks about larger issues of trade policy. If the G20 can encourage a global effort to unite economies and governments, we will start to see the framework through which true consumer protection on the internet can be built.