March 31, 2011

GERMAN COURT CALLS GOOGLE STREET VIEW LEGAL

A Berlin court has ruled, according to Deutsche Welle, that it’s legal for Google to take the street-level pictures, striking down a lawsuit brought on by a German woman who sued Google over Street View and cited privacy and property rights. The case is complicated, because the woman who sued did so out of the possibility that her privacy might be invaded — e.g. if Google Street View happened to take photos of the front of her house, and that the camera on top of the Google Street View vehicle would see over the hedge in front of it.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4jfzY (Source: CNET News)

CYBERCRIMINALS FOCUSING ON CORPORATE TRADE SECRETS

Cybercriminals are increasingly moving from stealing just personal data to capturing trade secrets and other corporate intellectual capital that they can easily sell through the underground market, according to a new report from McAfee and the SAIC. In the release of a new study, “Underground Economies: Intellectual Capital and Sensitive Corporate Data Now the Latest CybercrimeScience Applications International Corporate find that the theft of trade secrets, marketing plans, R&D data, and even source code is on the rise, especially as such information is often unprotected. Currency”, McAfee and the

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4o1ez (Source: CNET News)

March 29, 2011

INDIA TO BLOCK NEW DOMAINS ENDING IN .XXX

India will seek to block the internet’s newly-formed red-light district after a global agency governing the web approved .xxx suffix for pornography websites, a senior government official said. “India along with many other countries from the Middle East and Indonesia opposed the grant of the domain in the first place, and we would proceed to block the whole domain, as it goes against the IT Act and Indian laws,” said a senior official at the ministry of IT.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4niYY (Source: The Economic Times)


March 24, 2011

JUDGE REJECTS SETTLEMENT FOR GOOGLE BOOKS DEAL

March 22, 2011

A U.S. judge rejected a $125 million settlement that would have allowed Google Inc. to create the world’s biggest digital-book library. Opponents of the deal said it violated international law.

March 23, 2011

ICANN APPROVES .XXX DOMAIN AS PROTESTS CONTINUE

The agency governing Internet addresses approved the creation of a new red-light district on the Web, but the decision may not end years of fighting over the contentious plan. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers authorized the creation of an .xxx suffix for pornography Web sites.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4hYBa (Source: The New York Times)


March 21, 2011

EU OFFICIAL STRESSES PRIVACY RULES FOR WEBSITES

Social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google, may face court action if they fail to obey planned EU data privacy rules, European Union justice chief Viviane Reding said. Reding will propose an overhaul of the EU’s 16-year-old laws on data protection in the coming months to enforce more safeguards on how personal information is used.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4goOK (Source: Reuters)


March 15, 2011

TWITTER SETTELES PRIVACY CHARGES WITH FTC

The Federal Trade Commission accepted a settlement with Internet messaging service Twitter Inc. to resolve charges that Twitter deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk by not safeguarding personal information. The settlement bars Twitter from misleading consumers about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy and confidentiality of non-public consumer information for 20 years, according to a statement posted on the FTC website.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4dwYi (Source: Bloomberg)


March 14, 2011

BRITISH MAN GOES TO JAIL AFTER BLOGGING ABOUT GIRLFRIEND

When most people end a relationship, they don’t start creating websites to insult, embarrass and terrorize their exes. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what one British man did — and now he’s been jailed for it.

Read the article: http://gigalaw.com/2011/03/10/british-man-goes-to-jail-after-blogging-about-girlfriend/ (Source: msnbc.com)

March 9, 2011

SINGAPORE TO HAVE DATA PROTECTION ACT IN 2012

The Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, told the Singapore Parliament in February that a data protection review had now been completed. The Government has concluded that it would be in Singapore’s overall interests to put in place a data protection regime, in order to protect individuals’ personal data against unauthorised use and disclosure for profit,The announcement came in response to a question from MP Lee Bee Wah, in view of what he said were “reports of offers to sell personal and contact information of key officers in various Government Ministries”. Minister Lui said that the proposed (data protection) law is intended to curb excessive and unnecessary collection of individuals’ personal data by businesses, and include requirements such as obtaining the consent of individuals to disclose their personal information. He further said, “It will also enhance Singapore’s overall competitiveness and strengthen our position as a trusted hub for businesses and a choice location for global data management and processing services.”

March 2, 2011

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SPEAKING OUT AGAINST ICANN

The California nonprofit organization that operates the Internet’s levers has always been a target for global heavies like Russia and China that prefer the United Nations in charge of the Web. But these days, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is fending off attacks from a seemingly unlikely opposition: the Obama administration.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/458Sl (Source: The Washington Post)