Tag photos and tag internet security

It is fun to label our own or our friend’s photos on social networks. We can easily and quickly let others know who is in the photo, or make humorous comments.

If you go right now to the “Privacy Terms” page of the social network where you usually tag photos, or any other internet site, you will find not just one page of information but a very long “sheet” of very small print with foreign legal terms that very few people can read and much less understand. An example of this can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy, but you can check for yourself that there are many other sites exactly like this one. I suspect you are as shocked as we are. Right?

Well, just for this reason and so that ordinary people can quickly and easily see how the website complies, or fails to comply, with the six principles of privacy set out in the proposal for a European data protection regulation, Alexander Alvaro, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28246/Alexander_ALVARO.html, a member of the European Parliament for Germany, has proposed creating a privacy label (or tag) that summarizes the long Privacy Terms sheet and that the label itself has an electronic version which could be read by programs automatically. Imagine that in the future you could configure your browser with an option that would let you select “do not enter web sites that sell my information to third parties”. Brilliant idea isn’t it? It would be something like the eco-labels that now come with appliances or the labels that come on delicate garments: at a glance we would quickly know what steps we need to take to protect our personal data.

If Mr. Alvaro’s proposal is finally accepted, many websites that currently collect personal data and then create files that end up who knows where will be in big trouble.

But they can relax, Prot-On can help them comply with the six principles of privacy set out in the proposal for European data protection regulation. With Prot-On they can guarantee data encryption, data ownership, and control of the distribution and use of the data. The only thing the owner of a website that collects personal data will be left to worry about is whether or not the collection of the data is absolutely necessary for their application.

© Copyright Alexander Alvaro ( Vice-President of the Europe Parlament )