Since Plato, philosophers have invested countless hours and words on the investigation of ethics. What makes something right or wrong? What do we mean by acting morally or immorally – or indeed amorally. Are good and bad fixed and objective facts, or just opinions relative to your culture, your religion, your circumstances, your place in … Continue reading Deus ex machina
So today we have the news that a top plastic surgery outfit has been breached by hackers. Included in the haul: before and after pictures of celebrities’ improved nether regions. Never thought I’d be able to include labiaplasty as a keyword in this blog. Hard to think of anything more intrusive by way of data … Continue reading Article 9 – it’s not just a number
A few days ago, I wrote about European Court of Justice Advocate General Yves Bot. He had decided that Facebook shouldn't have transferred data about an Austrian student to its US data centres. At the time, this was just an opinion. Now it's an official ruling by the ECJ. This is where it gets interesting. … Continue reading Safe Harbor is officially dead. Now what? (Where’s your data: reprise)
So it begins. Merkel blinked first, talking about protecting European personal data by keeping it in Europe. Now Brazil is about to pass a law making it mandatory to keep Brazilian citizens’ data within the country’s borders. At first glance, this is a kneejerk reaction to the Snowden revelations, intended to punish the US for … Continue reading Never mind data protection, this is data protectionism
Scott Robertson is the latest in a long series of pundits to echo Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg in proclaiming the death of privacy. Whether you think it’s a loss to be mourned or a chain to cast off joyfully, it’s clear that attitudes to privacy in our personal lives cross over into our professional … Continue reading Why should I care if privacy is dead?
A bigger picture 