http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/bradner.html Scott Bradner's weekly observations on the Internet. Network World, Inc. Copyright(C) 1994 - 2012 Network World, Inc. http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2012/020712-bradner.html?source=nww_rss In late January, the European Commission published a proposal "on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data." Scott Bradner 2012-02-07T02:55:50-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2012/011712-bradner.html?source=nww_rss What is it about politicians that makes them believe that they, with a few minutes' cursory review, know better than people who have studied in an area for decades? Whatever the case, it far from a rare condition. The most recent example of this attitude is the copyright protection proposals currently in front of Congress. Scott Bradner 2012-01-17T04:52:01-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2012/010312-bradner.html?source=nww_rss I ended last year with a death-of-the-Internet column, and I'm starting off the new year with a death-via-the-Internet one. Scott Bradner 2012-01-03T11:47:42-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/122011-bradner.html?source=nww_rss A year ago I wrote that 2011 would be a year in which the Internet would "be under a multi-pronged attack that threatens to change it irrevocably in ways that may destroy much of the Internet's potential." Well, 2011 has come and mostly gone, and it turned out that my pessimism may have been misplaced but not invalid. Scott Bradner 2011-12-20T09:13:11-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/111511-bradner.html?source=nww_rss The Supreme Court earlier this month heard arguments on a relatively common drug case, but there is a chance for this case to set the groundwork, for good or ill, on resolving most of the issues I discussed recently regarding the murky state of privacy protections from the government in the United States. Scott Bradner 2011-11-15T03:33:57-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/110111-bradner.html?source=nww_rss In September representatives from India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) got together to talk about the Internet. Their conclusion: The 'Net needed help from the United Nations in the areas of developing policies, technical standards, operation, dispute resolution and crises management. Scott Bradner 2011-11-01T09:19:14-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/101711-bradner.html?source=nww_rss Consumer advocates as well as many business groups have attempted to get federal laws adopted in the United States that would mandate disclosure of security breaches in which some types of private information about identifiable people are exposed. In spite of the obvious logic of having a national standard, these efforts so far have failed. Scott Bradner 2011-10-17T02:04:12-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/100311-bradner.html?source=nww_rss One feature of today's mostly electronic, mostly Internet world is that governments tend to assume that it is legally OK to do many things that they would never have considered to be OK in the pre-Internet world. Scott Bradner 2011-10-03T12:52:14-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/092011-bradner.html?source=nww_rss In November 2009 the European Parliament approved a directive on Internet privacy that, among other things, required user opt-in before websites could install cookies on the user's computer. Scott Bradner 2011-09-20T09:23:23-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/090611-bradner.html?source=nww_rss HP management has not been good to the company over the last few years. One would have to do a lot of searching to find a management team that has so thoroughly messed up in the court of public opinion. Scott Bradner 2011-09-06T02:21:36-04:00