Data Protection | GreenNet

Service	Description
Free anonymising browser debuts.	Web users worried about privacy can now use a modified version of Firefox that lets them browse the net anonymously. The Torpark browser uses technology backed by digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It has been created by Hacktivismo - an international coalition of hackers, human rights workers, lawyers and artists.
Freedom of Information deadline looms.	But the public sector isn't sufficiently prepared, says a Whitehall report.
Google decides to anonymise users search data	- the decision is welcomed by privacy groups as a step forward, but the data will only be anonymised after after 18 to 24 months
ID cards may breach human rights, say MPs.	The joint parliamentary committee on human rights states: "The information which the bill envisages will be held on the register allows for significant intrusion into private life."
ID cards to be issued in three years after Lords drops its opposition.	The House of Lords accepted the amendment that anyone applying for a new biometric passport before January 2010 could opt out of having an ID card. See the latest on campaigning against ID cards and databases in the UK.
Is your data safe in their hands?	=Census Alert logoHelp stop the 2011 census being run by an arms company with close links to the United States government.
ISPs, telcos and police voice fears over data retention cost.	European legislation on data retention has been criticised for not putting the question of who pays the cost of retaining data into law, instead relying on informal negotiations between individual ISPs, telcos and the Home Office.
Manchester police sideswipe at journalistic freedom.	TV Producer alleges he was held for murder so police could access controversial files.
MPs critical of ID cards plan.	A Commons Science and Technology Committee report finds that Home Office consultation on its proposed biometric identity cards programme has been too restricted and its cost estimates may be unreliable.
Privacy International has filed a complaint	about Google's Gmail service with Privacy and Data Protection Commissions internationally.