Matt Brownell recently wrote an article on information gleaned by a spy agency he'd hired to uncover personal information through legal means using publicly available information. Limited to a 2 hour window, Brownell was pretty astonished at what the spy agency was able to uncover. The recent revelations based on leaked classified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) have brought a heightened awareness of U.S. securities agency practices in targeting citizens internet activity. However what Brownell highlighted was that it's not only the government who can obtain this information, anyone accessing public sites can gather a great deal of information on you legally.
Might we as U.S citizen's need to reconsider our privacy policies? The EU has proposed a “Right To Be Forgotten” legislation that could be finalized sometime in 2014. Ninety percent of EU citizens support the data protection directive law across Europe. The EU currently restricts flow of data from its countries to the U.S. under the protection directive due to its view that our privacy protections are not adequate. The recent NSA debacle only adds to the perception that the U.S. privacy protections are inadequate. The previous dictatorships of ‘Old Europe’ countries who are part of the EU where government intrusion was a reality see how U.S. business and government are working together to share data as problematic to maintaining citizens privacy. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook are just some of the large U.S. technology organizations sharing data with the U.S. Government under the guise of the PRISM program. PRISM is the code name for the U.S. government’s data mining efforts. Multiple EU agencies have voiced concern for right to privacy and data protection by EU citizens. The EU is demanding legislative change in the U.S. in order to foster multinational talks that could lead to agreed upon standards. Discussions between the European Council and U.S. officials ensue post the NSA information leaks to address the U.S. data mining and internet surveillance practices.
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