Working for an internet media company it’s inevitable that at one point you will have to deal with legislation regarding privacy. When you are confronted by the governmental watchdog organizations you will be come acutely aware they don’t have the foggiest about the internet.
In my specific case, I am trying to get a contract signed for a new analytics product to measure videos online. It’s quite simple: we want to see which videos are watched, how often and where. There might be some other tidbits of information, but bottom line it’s fairly straightforward.
Now the Dutch privacy watchdog has looked at a similar case and has determined that such activities are not within the guidelines which are acceptable for pure analytics tracking. The reason being, that it’s not for one site, but for multiple sites, therefore actively tracking cross-domain. Because tracking is done by a third party, there is (according to the watchdogs) no guarantee that it will not be used by someone else even though we OWN the statistics, and therefore require active consent.
The problem with this is, that you cannot by the definition of video control where it is being viewed. Basically if a person decides to embed a video on his blog we would be violating the analytics exemption and require consent from the browser. Upon pointing out this, the watchdogs pretty much shrug and say: “it’s not our problem how the internet works; you are required to adhere to the law”.
This is but a single example of how lawmakers fail to understand how the internet works. There is a myriad of examples: discussions about copyright and hyperlinking or embedding, trying to force ISPs to start policing internet traffic to prevent piracy. Not to mention the fact government is the biggest invader of our privacy there ever was.
There was a point in time I had hoped that lawmakers would get caught up with the current times and make comprehensive legislation that protects people online in ways that work and are meaningful. Instead we’re still dealing with the idiotic policies invented by those who have no affinity with the internet and clearly don’t care they are actively working on destroying possibly the best invention of the 20th century. Maybe things will change, but I won’t hold my breath.
Now if you will excuse me, there’s a wall with my head’s name on it.