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'America radicalised me!' cries Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom

Plus: 'Let’s face it, most people click yes to Ts&Cs contracts without reading them'

Meanwhile, British MPs have called on social media firms to simplify their privacy policies and stop hiding their practices behind impenetrable lawyer talk.

The Science and Technology Committee Ts&Cs of firms like Twitter and Facebook and said that the government needed to work with the Information Commissioner to develop info standards to force sites to explain how they’re using personal data. Committee chair Andrew Miller MP said:

Let’s face it, most people click yes to terms and conditions contracts without reading them, because they are often laughably long and written in the kind of legalese you need a law degree from the USA to understand.

Socially responsible companies wouldn’t want to bamboozle their users, of course, so we are sure most social media developers will be happy to sign up to the new guidelines on clear communication and informed consent that we are asking the government to draw up.

Also in the UK, Vodafone was a bit overzealous in responding to a police request for information on a particular journo, handing over the records of 1,760 British journalists and their colleagues to London’s Met instead.

After realising what they’d got their hands on, the cops used the files to create a list of everyone called by the hacks over a three-year period, according to The Times. The journos in question worked for News UK, publisher of The Sun and The Times.

Apparently, Scotland Yard only noticed its private data bonanza when it transferred the data onto CDs in March and The Times claims it then made a spreadsheet of the hacks’ contacts. Three months later, the police admitted the error to the UK’s Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office. That office then contacted News UK.

Vodafone told the Times:

We wrote to the Met to express our grave concern that the police continued to retain the data released to them in error and made it clear to them that any assumption that meaningful conclusions could be drawn from any aspect of the corrupted dataset was highly questionable.

While the Met said:

We recognised the sensitivity of the excess data provided and ensured it was retained securely, until it was returned to Vodafone. The Metropolitan Police consulted with the Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office, and the Information Commissioner on how this error should best be managed.

The Met agreed that it would only use the material for a policing purpose, when in the interests of justice to do so, and where people were already charged and facing criminal proceedings.

And Mike Darcey, chief executive of News UK, said:

A senior Vodafone executive has personally apologised to me for what he insists was ‘human error’. Vodafone accepts that the data was ‘wrongly disclosed’ and that our trust and confidence in them have been badly damaged.

They also recognise that the mobile phone records of journalists – and lawyers – contain privileged information and we have made clear to them that we regard this as a very serious issue. I am personally appalled that this could happen and have relayed this in the strongest terms when speaking with Vodafone.

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