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EU Broadens Probe of Search Engines and Privacy
Raver32 sends in word of a PC World article reporting that EU officials are looking beyond Google in their examination of the impact search engines have on privacy. Quoting: "A panel of European data protection officials called the Article 29 Working Group decided Wednesday to request information from Google's rivals amid concerns that search engines are holding onto information about the people who use them for too long, Hustinx said. Hustinx... declined to name the companies. However, they are believed to include Yahoo Inc., Lycos Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live.com."
Will they be checking that European search engine the French were pushing? The Google killer?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Considering the data retention being required of ISPs by countries like the UK how can they complain about Google etc. ?
Round up the usual suspects, drag them down the station, knock a few heads together and see what falls out.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
Hardly surprising - see here
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,
"But arguing over whether discussion should focus on the worst offender, versus a general industry indictment, can be a distraction from the need to implement privacy protections which cannot be easily ignored."
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/001218
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/mt-comments.cgi
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
OMG, I wish I could mod you flamebait/troll so bad right now. No further comment.
>The EU started out as a common market, to make trade easier between European countries. Now it's turned into an anti-America machine. Now everybody loses.
No, you're wrong, and your post is typical of many USians. You're used, as a country, to trampling all before you - but the EU is too big to push around. The EU is not anti-US but it does have its own point of view on many topics that may diverge from the States. You are confusing the normal free will of the EU with being specifically anti-US.
I think it's funny how us as Americans have this mentality that, if you're not with us, you're against us. I personally don't think like that but it's certainly something that I see far too often these days. I'm an American who has been living in Italy for a little over a year and I've seen my share of things i don't like and that I do like and in the end it's just Apple's and Oranges. They're too different to compare and if one agenda steps over another than well hey someones gonna end up upset....in this case it's /.ers
We came,we saw, we kicked it's ass!
The following research paper (PDF) from September of last
year might be useful:
Googling Considered Harmful
Abstract:
"Virtually every Internet user on the planet uses the powerful free
tools offered by a handful of information service providers in
many aspects of their personal and professional lives. As a result,
users and organizations are freely providing unprecedented
amounts of sensitive information in return for such services as
Internet search, email, mapping, blog hosting, instant messaging
and language translation. Traditional security measures, such as
cryptography and network firewalls, are largely ineffective
because of the implicit trust paradigm with the service provider.
In this paper, we directly address this problem by providing a
threat analysis framework of information disclosure vectors,
including fingerprinting of individuals and groups based on their
online activities, examine the effectiveness of existing privacy
countermeasures and clearly outline the critical future work
required to protect our corporate, organizational and individual
privacy when using these services."
You are confusing the normal free will of the EU with being specifically anti-US
Although you're feeding a troll, I can't resist seconding you.
This one sentence pretty much sums up 95% of all the alledged 'anti-americanism' in Europe. What, we're somehow not your juggernaut in all thinkable aspects of life? Why, you must be anti-american.
This is just another example of the EU trying to limit American companies so that they can force their own homegrown (and invariably inferior) products on their member states.
So what *does* America actually produce over and above what Europe produces? The biggest company in the world, Walmart, is American and a major importer from China and the third world, no different to we European states.
It's a real shame the EU doesn't fund innovation instead of lame copies, then it wouldn't have to spend so much money trying to keep outside products down.
Again, copies of what? What does the US produce that the EC copies?
This is why there are so many crappy films with half the crew being French, a quarter German and a quarter from Luxembourg.
And if you look carefully, a lot of the blockbusting reasonably good movies are not being filmed in the US any more - The Bourne Supremacy/Identity were both filmed in Eastern Europe mostly. That makes you a hypocrite.
The EU started out as a common market, to make trade easier between European countries. Now it's turned into an anti-America machine. Now everybody loses.
Wrong. As the EU solidifies it becomes a *BIGGER* single market than the US and therefore cannot be pushed aroud so much.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
"As the EU solidifies it becomes a *BIGGER* single market than the US and therefore cannot be pushed aroud so much."
Ah, so the goal is to stop America "pushing around" Europe. I'd call this anti-American, wouldn't you?
Using openSUSE instead of Windows since 9th of October, 2007 and liking it.
Ah, so the goal is to stop America "pushing around" Europe. I'd call this anti-American, wouldn't you?
Yes. In the same sense in which the Boston Tea Party was Anti-British. I'd call this legitimate, wouldn't you?
I live in the U.S., and when all these lawsuits against U.S. companies came into the news, I also felt that they were basically working against U.S. corporations.
Until I found out that the largest fines handed out by the EU has been to European companies.
Make no mistake; I think the ruling against Microsoft in the favor of Anti-virus companies was a Bad Choice. Likewise, I think these lawsuits against Google are a bad idea, too. Frankly, I think the EU is doing a horrible job when treating companies - but it's their own as WELL as US companies. The U.S. only hears about the U.S. ones being hassled.
No, I wouldn't!
Making tea with cold, salty water? It's a disgrace!
No... The goal is to stop ANYBODY pushing us around. Americans just seem to be the ones who are most visibly pushing, and most vocally objecting when the pushing doesn't work.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.