Fair Web Services Certification

Privacy

What does privacy mean regarding a Fair Web Service? Fortunately, there are laws and regulations which already enforce some protection of privacy. Every web service has to have a privacy policy. Unfortunately, this still doesn’t mean that services care about your privacy. Part of your freedom is also the ability to give up privacy. That is your own decision. But what we need is that there is a choice. We need to be able to take advantage of what technology makes possible without having to give up our privacy. That’s why we need Fair Web Services which care about protecting privacy and giving their users choice.

Transparency about sharing of data

Services make it clear in the user interface what data is shared with whom and how it is processed.

Rationale: Users need to know what happens to their data so that they can judge who sees which of their data and what is done with it. This is a base for an informed decision if and to what extent to use the service.

Control of sharing of data

Services give users control about what data to share with whom.

Rationale: In addition to transparency of sharing users need to have control about sharing so that they can decide how their data is used.

Default to private

Services never extend sharing data without the explicit approval of the user.

Rationale: Users privacy is protected even if they are inactive or are not paying attention to changes in the service.

Deletion of data

Services must offer users a way to delete all their data.

Rationale: Users can be sure that their data is not used anymore if they decide to leave a service.