links for 2006-12-15

David Leigh and Rob Evans report on the Information Commissioner’s report into newspapers’ use of personal data illegally obtained by private detectives.

Wired editor and The Long Tail author Chris Anderson has published a two-part blog post outlining his vision for “radical transparency” in media.

Illana Fox is leaving Associated Northcliffe Digital to join News Group Digital as Community Editor.

National Union of Journalists members at AOL UK have unanimously voted to strike over … what they claim is a lack of consultation at the tech company.

Seamus McCauley: “Craigslist has done nothing more sinister than given the (ex) readers of the Philadelphia Daily News more choice. That they’ve chosen not to keep reading the paper is an indictment of the journalists writing there, not Craig.”

The BBC’s Martin Rosenabaum has three important questions about the Department of Constitutional Affairs consultation about proposed changes to Freedom of Information Act fees.

VNU was last night “close to agreeing a €320m-plus sale of a group of European business magazines, websites and trade shows to 3i, the private equity group.”

Mindy McAdams rounds up some very valuable resources about what to pay attention to when setting up a site that encourages users to share their stuff.

With his suddenly huge readership, political blogger Guido Fawkes is growing tired of cleaning up after the crazies increasingly populating his comments.

Robert Niles presents the top mistakes made by publishers who think there is no original reporting online or that blogs are just egos and spam. Such pessimism is repeated by those who “don’t know what they’re talking about and [are] frustrated with the We

Exam results from every secondary school in Scotland were published by the Executive yesterday. … Education spokesman Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: “Had it not been for the Freedom of Information Act these figures would not be available at all.”