Can the UN control online privacy?

Every time you use your credit card online, the number is parsed through six countries. Many of those countries have no policies at all when it comes to privacy in general, and certainly no policies when it comes to privacy in the internet sphere.

Google’s privacy chief, Peter Fleisher, addressed the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation recently to encourage governments and businesses to create a standard for how online privacy should be handled. He said that if a stand was not taken, people might lose confidence in the internet and “hinder its development”.

Aside from the fact that Google’s own approach to our privacy is questionable, I also doubt that the UN is the right vehicle to drive this quest. After all, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, so you need just one country to decide it is not going to play by the rules and the foundation is rocked.

The same goes for copyright. Have a look at Russia’s Facebook. Two things you should know: it is NOT affiliated in any way with the Facebook we know, and Russians are so deeply ingrained in their version that they think the West ripped them off. Seriously.

How exactly would the UN handle this, and should it even try? Certainly, online privacy and copyright are global issues, due to the global nature of the internet. And they are certainly also strongly linked to security.

But think about it: Would it really be in the UN’s interest to preserve global peace and harmony by protecting your online privacy, or would the opposite apply? After all, would the UN not want to know who is typing and downloading what, where and why?

It is a very fine dividing line between keeping individual information private and safe, and keeping the world safe. I suspect the two ideals cannot co-exist, and certainly not in the hands of the UN. In an extreme scenario, do you think the UN would uphold the right to keep Bin Laden’s email and IP private? Should they have the option? And what would, ahem, Bush say to that?

None of this, of course, solves the problem of that credit-card number floating through six countries. Or of Russia’s Facebook. The quest for the solution to preserving online privacy, business integrity and usage confidence will be the next big thing. Without it, all the other big things will just lose their sparkle.