Web 2.0 Reality: Privacy, Anyone?

Marc Dautlich and Nick Eziefula of Times Online discuss the myriad ways that Web 2.0 is changing our concept of privacy and copyright.

From “podcast” to “poke”, “wiki” to “weblog”, the internet generation has a language all of its own. But since web guru Tim O’Reilly popularised the phrase “Web 2.0″ in 2004, even those who never considered themselves internet-literate have worked the new technology into their daily lives. Facebook, the social networking phenomenon, dominates water cooler conversations everywhere, having gained a staggering 42 million users since its worldwide launch in 2006. YouTube, which was founded as recently as 2005, attracts some 100 million page views a day.

New forms of interaction are forcing us to develop new social rules: is it wrong to spy on your ex’s Facebook page? At what point does an unanswered friend request become a gentle hint that you are not wanted? But such rapid change also raises a more serious question: do we need new laws to govern this changing internet landscape?

The analysis continues.