Google’s Answer to British Lawsuit: Your Privacy Laws Don’t Touch us

LONDON, August 18, 2013 -Google has told British consumers taking legal action against it for privacy breaches that it does not have to answer to the English courts and that UK privacy laws don’t apply. Legal documents filed by the company in response to a claim by three people backed by the campaign group, Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking, show that Google will contest the right of Safari users in the UK to bring a case in the country they live in and where they use Google’s service. The search giant has dismissed the Safari claims as not serious, saying that the browsing habits of internet users are not protected as personal information, even when they potentially concern their physical health or sexuality. Judith Vidal-Hall, one of the claimants, is appalled by this: “Google’s position on the law is the same as its position on tax: they will only play or pay on their home turf. What are they suggesting- that they will force Apple users whose privacy was violated to pay to travel to California to take action when they offer a service in this country on a .co.uk site? This matches their attitude to consumer privacy. They don’t respect it and they don’t consider themselves to be answerable to our laws on it.” Google refused to accept service of the lawsuit in the UK, instead forcing the victims to serve on the company in California. Their claim is based on Google’s admission that tracking cookies were installed on the computers and mobile devices of people using Apple’s Safari internet browser even when they had expressly chosen to block them. These cookies allowed Google to secretly track the browsing activities of millions of Safari users, without their knowledge, and to collate and use that data. The practice was only stopped when a law student and security researcher noticed Google’s activity and published an exposé in the United States. Google paid a record $22.5million settlement to the US Federal Trade Commission to settle charges. Marc Bradshaw, another claimant, believes this latest development is just another ruse by Google to avoid responsibility for its actions: “It seems to us absurd to suggest that consumers can’t bring a claim against a company which is operating in the UK and is even constructing a $1 billion headquarters in London. “If consumers can’t bring a civil claim against a company in a country where it operates, the only way of ensuring it behaves is by having a robust regulator. “But the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office, has said to me that all it can do is fine Google if it breaks the law, but Google clearly doesn’t think that it is bound by that law. Fines would be useless – even if Google agreed to pay them - because Google earns more than the maximum fine in less than two hours. With no restraint Google is free to continue to invade our privacy whether we like it or not.” Mr Bradshaw wrote to the Information Commissioner asking him to impose “effective sanctions to rein in Google” and to ensure it complies with the law. The internet giant is pooling data from all of its products giving it a comprehensive record of each internet user’s preferences. Dan Tench, a partner at Olswang, the law firm acting for the claimants, said: “Our letter to the Information Commissioner conveyed our client’s position that fines won’t work and urged him to change Google’s behaviour through an enforcement notice or other alternative sanctions. The response was that they found our client’s position simplistic and difficult to implement. But a leading QC disagrees and has advised that the Information Commissioner does have stronger powers. We note that France’s regulator, CNIL, has been more robust, announcing a final ultimatum to Google to ensure quickly that its privacy policy complies with European law. Our regulator should listen to consumers and recognise that other sanctions are needed to get Google to behave.” In the letter to the Commissioner, Mr Bradshaw proposed a number of alternative sanctions. These include ordering: • Plain English warnings on Google's search home page explaining how and why data is collected and tracked; • Reversing Google's merger of all data across its services or, if that isn't possible, deleting all illegally merged data, with deletion independently verified; and • A prominent apology to be placed on the Google search home page. Marc Bradshaw continues: “Google is one of the largest companies in the world with huge financial resources and access to the most expensive lawyers around the world. Regulators must rise to this challenge and rein in Google. If they fail, every internet user in this country will suffer and the right to online privacy could be lost forever.”

Google Reader is Shutting Down -- But Why Should You Care?

SAN FRANCISCO, March 16, 2013 - Yesterday's announcement to shut down Google Reader in July sparked protests on the Internet, but why?

Since 2009 the industry has predicted the demise of RSS, and everyone's banking on social reading.  While there are other feed aggregators, it's clear that RSS – like dial-up – is headed into obscurity.  Internet users should not be asking "how do we save this?" , but instead, "what's next?"

In yesterday's New Yorker, Joshua Rothman waxed poetic about lost knowledge and noble pursuits with the decline of Reader, but pointed out how feeds can overwhelm users.  Reader's value was organizing web content, not having an endless stream of articles reminding you that your commitment to home gardening is not what you thought it was.

Content curation is unquestionably the next big thing, and personal collection, organization and publication is driving this movement.

RSS feeds deliver "push" content - a passive experience wherein subscribed or relevant content is automatically delivered.    However, "pull" content is what the user has gathered. It's collected, organized, and presented for utility or perspective - personal curation is personal power.

Some Reader users will opt for other news feeders such as NetVibes, NewsBlur, and Feedly. Others may kick it old school and use browser bookmarks.  But others are going to look outside the box for what's next.

Jenna Gavin, CEO of Surfdash.com, states, "Our online lives are becoming more complex. Information we access on a regular basis – email accounts, banking, social media, health providers, local services, and news -  is overwhelming, and the industry is rethinking content access and organization."

There are curation tools available for professional marketers, bloggers, or high octane "sharers": put together pictures to tell a story and you have Pinterest, or publish your ideas with content on GetPocket. These collect-and-publish tools serve the marketplace, and those with personal curation tools, such as Surfdash.com, belong to the other 80% of us who don't broadcast what we had for breakfast.

RSS feeds will still be there, reminding us that we are not as well read as we'd like to be, but with tools that let us collect, organize, and share our web in a meaningful way, why do you care?              

Soon, Twitter fans can tweet in Hindi

New York, Sep 9 - There is a good news for Twitter fans in India as popular micro-blogging site is all set to launch services in Hindi in the coming weeks.

 Twitter, which came into existence five years ago, now boasts of 100 million active users worldwide.

 ÒAfter launching Hindi, Filipino, Malay and Simplified and Traditional Chinese in the coming weeks, Twitter will support 17 different languages,Ó according to a company blog.

 Both Twitter and social networking site Facebook have huge following in India. Among others, Facebook already offers its services in Hindi and five other Indian languages -- Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Telugu and Bengali.

 Going by estimates, Twitter has around 200 million registered users.

 ÒFor many, getting the most out of Twitter isn't only about tweeting: 40 per cent of our active users simply sign in to listen to what's happening in their world... Our 100 million active users range from passionate early adopters to recent converts,Ó the blog dated September 8 said.

 The micro-blogging site allows users to send messages, with a maximum of 140 characters.

 Global leaders, film personalities, journalists and sports people, including Indian cricketers, are among the diverse Twitter users.

 According to Twitter, 35 global heads of state such as Australia's Julia Gillard and Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, use the site.

 ÒMore than 40 per cent of the top global religious leaders are on Twitter, including @DalaiLama and the Pope...,Ó the blog noted.

 It said reporters share stories and photo from the front lines on Twitter.

 ÒOrdinary citizens break news and give us a view we might otherwise miss, like the now-famous Space Shuttle image that was re-tweeted over 2,300 times, and the first photo of the US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson River in 2009,Ó the blog said.

Google Acquires Carnegie Mellon Spin-off ReCAPTCHA

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 17 - ReCAPTCHA Inc., a spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Science Department, has been acquired by Google Inc. The Pittsburgh company developed online puzzles that serve the dual purpose of protecting Web sites and digitizing printed text.

The reCAPTCHA puzzles, which consist of words with distorted letters that computer users must decipher to register for services online or otherwise gain access to a Web site, began as a research project of Luis von Ahn, assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon. ReCAPTCHAs were introduced in 2007 and are used by many leading Web sites. The company, ReCAPTCHA Inc., was founded by von Ahn in 2008.

Like similar CAPTCHA (Completely Automatic Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) puzzles, reCAPTCHAs distinguish human visitors to Web sites from automated intruders. But reCAPTCHAs are created using words from printed texts that current optical character recognition programs are incapable of reading. So when humans solve the puzzle, they also help digitize pre-computer-age books, newspapers and other printed materials.

"Google is the best fit for reCAPTCHA," von Ahn said. "From the very start, people often assumed the project was connected to Google, so it only makes sense that reCAPTCHA Inc. ultimately would find a home within Google."

Multiple ties exist between Google and Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, von Ahn noted. Many researchers from the two organizations collaborate with each other and Google's Pittsburgh engineering office is situated on Carnegie Mellon's campus. In 2006, Google licensed the ESP Game, an online game devised by von Ahn, for use as the Google Image Labeler.

Von Ahn will remain on the computer science faculty, but will also work at Google's Pittsburgh engineering office.

ReCAPTCHA Inc. is among the startups that have participated in Carnegie Mellon's Project Olympus, which provides advice, incubator space and investor connections to help faculty and students explore the commercial potential of their ideas.

About Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the fine arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia and Europe. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion fundraising campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.