Martha Lane Fox: Internet needs body to resolve privacy fears

The internet should be at the heart of UK businesses, but needs an independent body to resolve questions around privacy, security and safety, according to digital pioneer Martha Lane Fox.

The Lastminute.com co-founder was speaking to the Radio Times ahead of her Richard Dimbleby lecture next week, and claimed the internet is a resolutely positive invention.

But she added: "Just as [Britain] established the rule of law around the world, why not imagine it now for the 21st century?

"We need a new institution to help us think through this stuff, the ethical and moral issues; about privacy, about security, about drones.

"It could be an institute granting a deeper understanding of the net. A neutral, trusted intermediary, founded here."

Her comments come after campaigners accused European governments of watering down new EU data regulations originally designed to give people more control over their own data.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has also pushed for encrypted messaging services to be banned in the UK, prompting a backlash from privacy advocates.

However, Lady Lane Fox, the government's former digital champion who wrote the report which spurred the rethink around public sector IT five years ago, also hailed the potential of the web to improve lives.

"I have never seen a tool that is as phenomenally empowering as the internet, for so little effort," she told the Radio Times.

"I have met from people all over the country, from Bridlington to Bournemouth, saying it has helped them get back to work, helped them get their life back on track.

"I believe it's worth spending the time showing people who haven't had the money or exposure, the benefits."

She joined the House of Lords as a crossbencher in 2013, and vowed to use her position to promote the internet as a way of empowering businesses to create services that improve quality of life.

"Putting the internet at the heart of things enables you to make more interesting choices," she added. "But that requires people understanding the transformative power of the net, and how to use it to build great services."

But she also spoke about the sexism inherent in the technology business world, citing a BCS study that reveals women comprise just 16 per cent of the UK tech workforce.

That gender bias extends to Silicon Valley, where she said tech giants like Twitter and Apple suffer from a male-dominated staff.

"Twitter has said if it had had more women on their original design team it would have thought a bit more about the potential for trolling and abuse," she said.

Apple's Health Kit doesn't have the capacity to provide any data on menstruation, despite offering services related to blood, sweat and heart rates something Lady Lane Fox believes is a result of having no women engineers behind it.