The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) will help computer users control how their personal data is managed online and is designing controls to protect personal data and warn users when sites are not honouring privacy requests and settings.
The W3C wants users, browser makers and businesses to help finish and implement the specifications and has set up a working group chaired by Matthais Schunter of IBM. A number of organisations are already involved including Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford University
The group is defining software specifications so a users browser settings can determine what tracking a website is permitted and to define a set of best practice guidelines for sites
The tools resulting from the W3C work will surrender as little information as possible and users could be warned about sites that do not do a good job of respecting requests to keep information private.
The finished technologies are expected to be implemented by browser makers first in mid-2012 with websites following soon after as they get to grips with the best practices.
W3C cannot insist that sites and software vendors follow its lead so it is still a case of user beware but this is a move in the right direction.
CM
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