The Cloud presents a whole other set of privacy issues. If you have a list of your contacts members or clients on google docs – do you know where in the in the world it is located? And if it is not located in Australia chances are, you are in breach of Privacy Legislation.

This is a real problem with “in the cloud” systems and SAAS. Where is your data? – the personal info of your clients, contacts, members, donors, etc.

The implications of not knowing where your data is located, aside from a breach of the law are not trivial.  Systems might be available in Australia, but maintaining servers here can be more expensive than maintaining servers in India or China. And the service providers can move your stuff around on a whim to anywhere in the world, from one corporate provider to another.

Terms and conditions are the things that “manage” privacy online. They are everywhere and I agree to one set or other at least once a week.

I had a recent twitter conversation with @kalska about T&C. She suggested that instead of an “I have read and agree with the T&C” button we need an “I haven’t read and may not agree but I want to continue anyway” button. I thought we also needed an “I have read and with a few changes I’ll agree with it” button.These buttons are a legally binding contracts and if everyone really read them all we’d not sign up for much.

Anyway, with regard to privacy the sharing information between entities is real “issue”. I’m pretty sure there are plenty of places sharing my stuff around, selling it even, mostly because I don’t read the T and C, or I sign up anyway.

This week is National Privacy Awareness week. Privacy is a thing I think about a lot in our line of work. It’s an issue that arises every day. In recent weeks several examples have arisen. I’ll blog on those over the next few days.

At a seminar on Accessibility, I spoke about Gov 2.0 issues including social media. Someone asked “We are watching what our students say about us through Twitter.  Is that ethical? “

My first reaction was that they are saying stuff about you in public – why wouldn’t you be watching.? I suggested that if you told them you were listening, you might get a lot more useful information.