Creator of the web reveals plan to save the internet from itself

COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS NEED TO DO BETTER WITH PRIVACY, AND INDEED CENSORSHIP.

Tim Berners-Lee, regarded as the creator of the worldwide web, talked last year about a new plan for the internet, designed to protect it from ‘sources of dysfunction’. Now that contract – yes, it’s that official – has been revealed.

The Contract for the Web sets out a number of core guiding principles for governments, companies, and users of the web themselves, to try and make the online landscape a better place on a number of different fronts.

Tech giants will actually have to sign up to support the contract – which comprises of 76 clauses in total – and actively abide by it (or at least that’s the theory). Google, Facebook and Microsoft are among the big tech giants to have already signed up, among 150+ other firms, although names notably missing at this point include Amazon and Apple.

So what are the principles? Governments are tasked with ensuring that all citizens can connect to the internet, and that all of the internet must be available to them, all of the time. In other words, every individual must be able to get online, and there should be no censorship.

Any interference in terms of what can be accessed on the internet should “only [be] done in ways consistent with human rights law”, the contract notes.

Those are some big goals, of course, and policies that clearly won’t go down well in some corners of the world.

In terms of making sure every citizen across the globe has an internet connection, the contract lays out a guideline of access to broadband being available to at least 90% of citizens by 2030. Companies are also called on to make internet access more affordable, to that end.

Privacy push

There’s another major push on the privacy front, as you might expect, with the call for both governments and companies to respect and protect the online privacy rights of those who use the web.

The call to companies, and doubtless the bit that the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft are scrutinising in particular, asserts what you’d expect in terms of clear explanations of any processes which affect user data and privacy, and the provision of control panels to manage data and privacy options in an easily accessible manner.

There’s also a stipulation that firms should carry out “regular and pro-active data processing impact assessments that are made available to regulators which hold companies accountable for review and scrutiny, to understand how their products and services could better support users’ privacy and data rights”.

Just as interesting is the section which calls for “minimising data collection to what is adequate, relevant, and necessary in relation to the specified, explicit and legitimate purposes for which the data is processed”.

It doesn’t stop there, though. A further point is to support independent research on how interface designs affect the process of getting consent from users (as well as other considerations) and how these could “influence privacy outcomes”. In other words, this sounds like a call for no more sneaky wording or other potentially misleading UI tricks we’ve seen in the past (like clicking on a cross icon being taken as consent for an OS upgrade).

The contract also says that there should be controls over how personal data is collected, and also used, which can easily be viewed and adjusted by the user.

ANY INTERFERENCE IN TERMS OF WHAT CAN BE ACCESSED ON THE INTERNET SHOULD “ONLY [BE] DONE IN WAYS CONSISTENT WITH HUMAN RIGHTS LAW”, THE CONTRACT NOTES.