The blogosphere has been abuzz lately with projections of who President-elect Obama will choose for the new position of Chief Technology Officer. This blog from the Washington Post focuses on the announcement that Julius Genachowski will be helping the transition team pick the new members for the technology team.  One issue mentioned --online privacy -- should be an important issue in the next Administration.

 

"Obama has said he would also focus on protecting online privacy of users and improve access to broadband Internet services by increasing speed standards for broadband and freeing up more government spectrum for public use."

 

I'm pleased that the new Administration considers online privacy to be a significant issue.  Sounds like the Obama Administration agrees with my view that online privacy is the ultimate online safety concern.

 

 

Check out this interesting survey I saw titled: Gender and Online Privacy among Teens: Risk Perception, Privacy Concerns, and Protection Behaviors . The study yields intriguing findings regarding privacy concerns and behaviors by gender.
 

Consumer Reports National Research Center recently conducted a very interesting and telling survey on how Internet users view privacy. It seems that people are not necessarily opposed to having personal information on the Internet, they just don't want their information tracked and then sold without their knowledge.  Donna Tapellini with Consumer Reports blog, hit the nail on the head when she said that people want more control over what's happening.  There are some benefits for consumers to this tracking process, but we all need to understand that this is happening and have some control.  In order for consumers to have control and make an informed choice, we need greater transparency from online companies.