LINX, the London Internet Exchange, said today that its privacy forum had resulted in overall consensus among attendees that the industry should independently formulate a best code of practice (BCP) document for internet privacy which members could use as a guide on how to protect the privacy of users. The LINX initiative has been prompted by what CEO Keith Mitchell described as the inaccurate reporting in the media that ISPs did not consider the privacy of their users as of primary importance. Minutes of the closed meeting will not be available for a few days, but Mitchell said attendees had arrived at a number of principles.
He said that the forum had agreed that: first, the privacy of users was important and should be defended, but that ISPs should always adhere to the law; and second, that the BCP privacy document should serve to clarify the law and educate ISPs on what the law required them to do. Mitchell added that the law is often too slow to keep up with the progress of technology and cautiously suggested that industry initiative and self regulation may be able to go further than the law in protecting the privacy of internet users. A draft document will now be produced and considered again at the next LINX meeting on June 2.
However, the turn-out to the meeting was not as high as hoped. LINX sent out 30 invites to members, industry and civil rights groups, but the forum attracted only 18 attendees from 12 organizations. Mitchell insisted that he was not displeased with the turn-out, saying that the balance between ISPs, government and civil rights groups had been good, but admitted he would have preferred to see more overall attendance. The forum was attended by representatives from the government’s DTI (Department of Trade and Industry); civil rights groups such as the Data Protection Register and STAND; and ISPs such as Demon Internet and UUNet. Noticeable absentees were AOL, Planet Online and British Telecommunications, as well as civil rights groups such as Liberty and Internet Freedom, who were all invited, but with the exception of AOL, did not reply.
