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Can online activism lead to any real change?

How social networks have changed our world

Number of Twitterati has shot up from 140 million in May, but majority of 500 million registered users prefer not to tweet

Twitter now has more than 200 million active users around the world

The rapid growth and perceived importance of Twitter in the US, where there are 140 million registered users

British internet users double in six years

The number of British adults using the internet every day has doubled in the last six years, according to new data.

In 2012, 33 million adults used the internet daily

ou're not paying for your presence on the web, then you're

just a product being used by an organisation bigger than you

When you use a free web service you're the underclass. At best you're a guest. At worst you're a beggar, couchsurfing the web and scavenging for crumbs. It's a cliché but worth repeating: if you're not paying for it, you're aren't the customer, you're the product.

Why I'm quitting Facebook By Douglas Rushkoff, CNN February 25, 2013 -- Updated 1502 GMT (2302 HKT)

(CNN) -- I used to be able to justify using Facebook as a cost of doing business. As a writer and sometime activist who needs to promote my books and articles and occasionally rally people to one cause or another, I found Facebook fast and convenient. Though I never really used it to socialize, I figured it was OK to let other people do that, and I benefited from their behavior. I can no longer justify this arrangement.

Today, I am surrendering my Facebook account, because my participation on the site is simply too inconsistent with the values I espouse in my work. In my upcoming book "Present Shock," I chronicle some of what happens when we can no longer manage our many online presences. I have always argued for engaging with technology as conscious human beings and dispensing with technologies that take that agency away.

Aaron Swartz files reveal how FBI tracked internet activist Firedoglake blogger Daniel Wright publishes once-classified FBI documents that show extent of agency's investigation into Swartz

Amanda Holpuch guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 February 2013 22.42 GMT

A blogger has published once-classified FBI files that show how the agency tracked and collected information on internet activist Aaron Swartz. Swartz, who killed himself in January aged 26, had previously requested his files and posted them on his blog, but some new documents and redactions are included in the files published by Firedoglake blogger Daniel Wright.Wright was given 21 of 23 declassified documents, thanks to a rule that declassifies FBI files on the deceased. Wright said that he was told the other two pages of documents were not provided because of freedom of information subsections concerning privacy, "sources and methods," and that can "put someone's life in danger."

Increasingly, Internet companies are pushing each other to prove to consumers that their data is safe and in their control.

“It’s not just privacy advocates and regulators pushing,” Mr. Lynch said. “Increasingly, people are concerned more about privacy as technology intersects their life.”

In some instances, established companies are trying to gain market advantage by casting themselves as more privacy-friendly than their rivals.

technology puts adverts on the web, is against the public interest.

It is sad that huge and well-resourced companies are buying up the market share of others instead of building up their own capacity

Google holds information about the private activities of its users that the intelligence agencies would die for

Google was recently slapped with two fines

They provide false assurances that, in the normal course of things, our privacy is not being invaded on the Internet, that our personal data is safe, and that we are anonymous in our online—and offline—activities.

not a single incident, but a slow, unstoppable process of profiling who we are and what we do, to be sold to advertisers and marketing companies

The Government yesterday launched a consultation on a possible change in the law to give parents more control over the material their children are viewing online.

Internet service providers have been in talks with the Government about ways of enabling parents to block sites containing sexually or gambling as well as forums glorify suicide and self-harm.

a report by MPs who called for a full “opt-in” which would automatically block adult material unless the user chose to deactivate it. Google has argued that an automatic block as a “mistake”, while Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk and Sky have developed versions of the “active choice” system which makes users chose whether they want parental controls when they sign up, rather than imposing them automatically.

As European parliaments reject the Anti-Counterfeiting trade Agreement on human rights grounds, some are asking why it was signed in the first place.

The question is – why was the agreement signed in the first place, if its chances of being ratified are dropping by the day?

The pretext was the protection of intellectual property, and to control Internet resources that could be used by terrorists or to incite riots and other criminal activity.

In its early, idealistic days the web was heralded as a force for democratic change. According to the early web revolutionaries, the medium opened up the world of publishing to everyone, regardless of nationality, race or location.

the network continued to grow organically, expanding to take in an ISP, a shopping site and a small businesses portal.

The BBC also plays an important role. As with its wider new media activities, the corporation's public service role has increased in importance as commercial competitors have fallen by the wayside.

Some time later this month we are expecting the European commission to decide how it will proceed with its investigation of the search giant Google, following the latter's submission of proposed remedies at the end of January over allegations that it has engaged in a range of anticompetitive practices.

Google is a global company and its activities will require a global solution.

Google's global revenues were £23.5bn in 2011. Those are its revenues before tax, although Google's approach to tax is another and equally interesting story. Those vast revenues do not come from those who search, but from those who bid to place advertisements alongside the search results. This means that Google has a clear interest to arrange the rankings in a way that maximises its profits and faces a stark conflict of interests when it does so. It has every incentive to demote other companies, who might actually be offering answers or services that are more relevant to the user queries, and to advance its own services.

Google told to fix privacy policy by EU data regulators

consolidate 60 separate privacy policies into a single agreement.

Google has been told it should give clearer information about what data is being collected and for what purpose. It has also been told to give users more control over how the information is combined.