donal's blog

There was a question on RTÉ's Questions and Answers programme this week regarding facebook and privacy on the Internet. The responses from the panel were not well informed - they confused the issue between privacy afforded to users of a service by the service provider and the issue of keeping your data private from the general public. The two issues are totally different and need to be addressed separately... How service providers can use the information you upload to their service is very important. We're all familiar with the tick boxes on marketing boxes letting you opt in or out of the ability for them to use your data to pass on to partners and 3rd parties (the majority of companies require you to opt out - default is opt in). Many online service providers use data from their users to improve the service and I personally do not have an issue with them doing this as long as they are transparent about how they are using it. With regards closing an account, it is reasonable ...

A report from the European Commission in October indicates that Irish youth have the lowest interest in Science & Technology news compared to other Europeans... The level of interest in science and technology news was the highest in Portugal and Greece – with 86% and 85%, respectively, of respondents who said these topics appealed to them. These two countries showed the smallest difference between the level of interest in science and technology news compared to news items about culture and entertainment. Interest in the former, on the other hand, was the lowest in Ireland and the Netherlands – with only a slim majority of respondents showing interest in these scientific topics (53% and 54%, respectively). Full link: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_239_sum_en.pdf