2020-01-17T08:27:25+01:00

Jan 17, 2020 · 1 min read
post

European Digital Rights (EDRi) is an association of various organisations who aim to “defend rights and freedoms in the digital environment”. They just published a wonderful guide with practical tips and information about common practices to avoid in web development.

As website developers have to cope at the same time with the increasing expectations of users and the limited resources most organisations devote to website development, there is a growing tendency to use more external services and resources. For example, it has become more and more common for web developers to take “free” resources, such as fonts and scripts and use them on the websites that they design. While these are “free” for the developer, they can have undesirable side effects for the users and the organisations that provide the website.

I found out for example that my website was not yet using the no-cookie mode for Youtube videos by default. And I discovered that the tool for my website even provides some standard settings to comply with GDPR. Neat!

Download the full guide on the EDRi website.

Software Development
Wouter Van Rossem
Authors
Wouter Van Rossem
Wouter Van Rossem is a researcher on the intersection between social science and computer science. He previously worked on the European Research Council (ERC) funded project, Processing Citizenship, where he investigated how data infrastructures for population processing co-produce citizens, Europe, and territory. He completed his PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and is still working on publications stemming from these impactful projects. In addition to his academic pursuits as a PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, he brings a diverse background as a software engineer, having worked in various companies and at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy. His diverse background, spanning both theoretical and hands-on knowledge, reflects his keen interest in exploring the intricate interconnections between technology and society.