Simon Davies (privacy advocate)

Simon Davies is a privacy advocate and academic based in London UK. He was one of the first campaigners in the field of international privacy advocacy, founding the watchdog organization Privacy International in 1990 and subsequently working in emerging areas of privacy such as electronic visual surveillance, identity systems, border security, encryption policy and biometrics.

In July 2008 Davies criticised the Stranton landmark Viacom vs. Google & YouTube ruling, stating the privacy of millions of YouTube users was threatened: 'The chickens have come home to roost for Google. Their arrogance and refusal to listen to friendly advice has resulted in the privacy of tens of millions being placed under threat. Governments and organisations are realising that companies like Google have a warehouse full of data. And while that data is stored it is under threat of being used and putting privacy in danger.' [ [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvFPgT3MNrzaN7r-Y37eFI-qv4bA Afp.google.com, Judge orders Google to give YouTube user data to Viacom] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7488009.stm bbc.co.uk, Google must divulge YouTube log] ]

Davies is also listed as current Chief Executive Officer of UK consultancy group 80/20 Thinking Limited [http://www.8020thinking.com] .

Academic posts

Davies has been a visiting fellow in law at both the University of Greenwich and the University of Essex and is currently a visiting senior fellow within the Department of Management of the London School of Economics (LSE) [ [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/staff/researchStaffAndVisitingFellows.htm London School of Economics Information Systems staff] , URL accessed 2006-10-23] . He is also codirector of the LSE's Policy Engagement Network which is presently researching options for the process stage of the development of a new British constitution [ [http://www.futurebritain.org/?page_id=2 Future Britain project] , URL accessed 2006-10-23] .

Awards

In April 1999 Davies received the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award for his contribution to online freedom [ [http://w2.eff.org/awards/pioneer/ Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award Winners] , URL accessed 2006-10-23] and in 2007 was made a fellow of the British Computer Society [http://www.bcs.org/] .In both 2004 [ [http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/as2004/ silicon.com Agenda Setters 2004] , URL accessed 2006-10-23] and 2005 [ [http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/as2005/ silicon.com Agenda Setters 2005] , URL accessed 2006-10-23] silicon.com voted him as one of the world's 50 most influential people in technology policy.

References