MOW’s core objective is to preserve the Open Web in the face of the tech platforms’ efforts to enclose it for their own monopolistic benefit. When we launched in 2001, this objective was to be achieved by three core areas of activity. We wanted to raise awareness of the threat that the platforms posed to the Open Web; we wanted to engage with competition authorities so that they understood the problems and potential solutions; and we wanted to work with web standards bodies to preserve and protect the open web standards that underpin a healthy and competitive Internet.
Now, we are adding another string to our bow. It has become clear that, in order to protect a functioning Open Web, we must address the issue of privacy. For too long the platforms have used the veil of privacy to justify their anti competitive actions, aided by confusion globally about what privacy means and how it can best be protected. This is nowhere more obvious than the confusing mass of contradictory legislation and regulation that has been introduced in this area in recent years.
MOW is fundamentally pro-privacy. We believe that the Open Web needs to offer consumers protection against bad actors and the ability to protect their personal data. But we also believe that the debate has become confused and shrouded in misinformation. Privacy is not mutually exclusive to competition – indeed competition can and should drive greater privacy. Our new privacy pillar aims to help educate and inform regulators, legislators and businesses about this complex debate and to help create a better understanding of, and more coherent guidance around, one of the most important digital debates of our times.
We’ve already started this process in our recent Data Governance and Accountability Principles and we look forward to working with privacy regulators, activists and governmental organisations to help bring some clarity to this vital topic.
