Second Life and UK data protection

I asked a while back whether the fact that Linden Lab is now charging VAT in the UK means that it is also required to comply with other UK legislation, such as the Data Protection Act (DPA).

A story from the BBC today indicates that Facebook is now being investigated by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), looking at privacy issues around the way the service continues to hold personal information about people after they have unsubscribed.

Although Facebook and many other social networks are based outside of the UK, Mr Evans [Senior Data Protection Practice Manager at the ICO] believes that UK law could still apply.

"They are established in the UK for UK legislation to cover their activities."

For the record, I don't have concerns that Linden Lab are abusing personal information. Just interested as to how far a US company is obliged to comply with legislation in the UK.

Linden Lab, VAT, data protection and all that

I note, via Milton Broome's blog, that the University of Edinburgh have made available a draft set of guidelines for making use of external Web 2.0 applications (direct link to the PDF) within university teaching and research activities.

This document offers guidance to staff within the University on some of the issues which need to be considered before using such services for University purposes. The document is intended to be helpful for all staff, including researchers, teaching staff and support staff.

This document is not specific to use of Second Life but most of the issues are pertinent to its use in education.

One is kinda left wishing that things didn't have to get so legal sounding - but I suppose that they probably do. Whatever... this looks like a very useful document and one that I'm guessing will begin to be mirrored in other institutions.

There's a big section on the issues around data protection. Given that Linden Lab are now collecting UK VAT from us it would seem logical that they also have to comply with UK and/or European data protection legislation. Is that the case?