Gabriel Weinberg, the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo has an impassioned plea to all of us to take a stand in the coming debate over Internet privacy. “Internet privacy” is a large and complex subject that includes abuses by the NSA and other government agencies as well as commercial enterprises that are eager to exploit our personal data for commercial gain.
It’s reasonable to be a bit pessimistic about being able to yank back our privacy from the government but it does seem possible to get the advertisers and data brokers under control. As Weinberg reports, the Obama administration is set to introduce legislation to do just that. We can expect major pushback from those who want to keep mining our personal information and building ever more comprehensive dossiers on us.
Weinberg says that this is a fight where we can actually make a difference and he suggests some ways to claw back our privacy. You should head on over and read his post. As he says, it’s now or probably never.
AFTERWORD: Here’s the EFF’s take on the upcoming legislation.