Recently, attendees of the annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) conference created a Users' Bill of Rights that is now available for public consumption, feedback, and approval. The bill was created as a result of the recent personal data breaches by firms such as Google, Facebook, and AT&T. The 14 point bill is available for feedback on Facebook and Twitter. Below are the 14 points:
1. Honesty: Honor your privacy policy and terms of service.
2. Clarity: Make sure that policies, terms of service, and settings are easy to find and understand.
3. Freedom of speech: Do not delete or modify my data without a clear policy and justification.
4. Empowerment: Support assistive technologies and universal accessibility.
5. Self-protection: Support privacy-enhancing technologies.
6. Data minimization: Minimize the information I am required to provide and share with others.
7. Control: Let me control my data, and don't facilitate sharing it unless I agree first.
8. Predictability: Obtain my prior consent before significantly changing who can see my data.
9. Data portability: Make it easy for me to obtain a copy of my data.
10. Protection: Treat my data as securely as your own confidential data unless I choose to share it, and notify me if it is compromised.
11. Right to know: Show me how you are using my data and allow me to see who and what has access to it.
12. Right to self-define: Let me create more than one identity and use pseudonyms. Do not link them without my permission.
13. Right to appeal: Allow me to appeal punitive actions.
14. Right to withdraw: Allow me to delete my account, and remove my data.
What do you think? Does this seem self-explanatory? Is this really necessary?
To read more, go to Social Networking Bill Of Rights Released.
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