Archive for March 1, 2012

Changes made by Google to its privacy policy are in breach of European law, the EU’s justice commissioner has said.

Viviane Reding told the BBC that authorities found that “transparency rules have not been applied”.

The policy change, implemented on Thursday, means private data collected by one Google service can be shared with its other platforms including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger.

Google said it believed the new policy complied with EU law.

“We are confident that our new simple, clear and transparent privacy policy respects all European data protection laws and principles,” it said in a statement.

It said the new set-up would enable it to tailor search results more effectively, as well as offer better targeted advertising to users.

It went ahead with the changes despite warnings from the EU earlier this week.

Data regulators in France had cast doubt on the legality of the move and launched a Europe-wide investigation.

via BBC News – Google privacy changes ‘in breach of EU law’.

(CNN) — Aid groups got the green light to enter the besieged Syrian enclave of Baba Amr as government forces moved in Thursday to take control of the restive anti-regime enclave.

Security forces barged into homes and snipers took positions on the rooftops of government buildings after opposition forces retreated, activists said.

The army “entered Baba Amr today in full force” amid what one activist source called a “bloodbath” in the neighborhood, which has been shelled relentlessly for more than three weeks, said Avaaz, an anti-government activist group.

“There are bodies on the street. Residents have never been more desperate. There is no food, no medicine and civilians are melting snow for drinking water,” said Alice Jay, an Avaaz official.

The forces effectively ignored an overwhelmingly backed U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on Thursday that condemned Syria’s “widespread and systematic violations of human rights” and called on the regime to permit aid groups in to distribute relief.

via Aid plan set as army moves into Baba Amr – CNN.com.