Semantic web 'will boost privacy'

The semantic web is likely to result in strong online privacy for internet users, according to founder of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Speaking to ZDNet, Sir Tim explained that his World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working on ensuring privacy principles are built into its semantic web project.

His comments followed a recent House of Lords event exploring the privacy implications of internet service providers using deep packet inspection (DPI) to analyse web users' browsing habits for advertising purposes.

Sir Tim had claimed at the discussion that DPI is akin to the postal service opening people's letters.

He said to ZDNet: "[The] W3C wants to help make sure data use is appropriate. Sometimes, it's a serious question [of] who should have what access [to information]."

The W3C published a first public working draft of its Pointer Methods in RDF document for semantic website development professionals this week.

Today (March 13th) marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim.

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