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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, calls for a universal online bill of rights
The inventor of the world wide web believes an online "Magna Carta" is needed to protect and enshrine the independence of the medium he created and the rights of its users worldwide.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee told the Guardian the web had come under increasing attack from governments and corporate influence and that new rules were needed to protect the "open, neutral" system.
Speaking exactly 25 years after he wrote the first draft of the first proposal for what would become the world wide web, the computer scientist said: "We need a global constitution a bill of rights."
Berners-Lee's Magna Carta plan is to be taken up as part of an initiative called "the web we want", which calls on people to generate a digital bill of rights in each country a statement of principles he hopes will be supported by public institutions, government officials and corporations.
"Unless we have an open, neutral internet we can rely on without worrying about what's happening at the back door, we can't have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture. It's not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it."
Berners-Lee has been an outspoken critic of the American and British spy agencies' surveillance of citizens following the revelations by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. In the light of what has emerged, he said, people were looking for an overhaul of how the security services were managed.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/online-magna-carta-berners-lee-web
dickthegrouch
(3,175 posts)Treat others as you would wish to be treated by them.
I heartily agree we need a bill of rights that says
We own our own information
Government can only use aggregated information with no personal identifiers unless a search warrant showing probable cause has been obtained
Everyone has the freedom to opt-in to any information collection by business or government. No information shall be kept or stored or used unless the owner has opted in.
Even after opting-in, everyone has the right to opt-out of having their information collected or stored.
Devices such as Google-glass shall have an opt-out mode, where anyone displaying an opt-out symbol shall not be recorded or published.
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