THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

That's the first paragraph in the preamble to the Bill of Rights found in our country's Constitution. I'm presenting it to you now because I'm curious if a preamble will be included with the "Social Network Users' Bill of Rights"

The Social Network Users Bill of Rights was drafted at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference last year. There are 14 amendments total, and are as follows:

1. Honesty: Honor your privacy policy and terms of service.

2. Clarity: Make sure that policies, terms of service, and settings are easy to find and understand.

3. Freedom of speech: Do not delete or modify my data without a clear policy and justification.

4. Empowerment: Support assistive technologies and universal accessibility.

5. Self-Protection: Support privacy-enhancing technologies.

6. Data Minimization: Minimize the information I am required to provide and share with others.

7. Control: Let me control my data, and don't facilitate sharing it unless I agree first.

8. Predictability: Obtain my prior consent before significantly changing who can see my data.

9. Data Portability: Make it easy to obtain a copy of my data.

10. Protection: Treat my data as securely as your own confidential data unless I choose to share it, and notify me if it is compromised.

11. Right to Know: Show me how you are using my data and allow me to see who and what has access to it.

12. Right to Self-Define: Let me create more than one identity and use pseudonyms. Do not link them without my permission.

13. Right to Appeal: Allow me to appeal punitive actions.

14. Right to Withdraw: Allow me to delete my account, and remove my data.

Unlike the Bill of Rights established for the country, users can vote on which ones they believe should be included. After careful consideration, I voted that all of the amendments should be included except 4., 5., 6., 9., 12., 13.

Why should the rest of the amendments be included except those six? First, it shouldn't be a "right" to access a social network. If anything, it's smart business to include technologies which would allow more people to join your site. #5 I was back and forth on. Ultimately, it isn't a right to force social networks to support one privacy enhancement over the other. #6 was a bit easier for me to exclude. It's not a right that a user should or should not have to provide a base amount of information to join a social network. It's simply up to the user to decide if the amount of information needed to join is worth providing. #9 - Data Portability should be seen as an added feature, not a right. #12 - Right to Self-Define is again a "feature" for a social network, not a right. I was confused by 13. If they mean people should be allowed to appeal before being kicked off a network, then I disagree with the sentiment. If they are relating to punitive damages in an actual court, then I would say #13 isn't needed anyway.

The ideas presented in the WebProWorld newsletter editor's note do not reflect the thoughts, and ideas of the WebProWorld community.

| JohnnyV |