Friday 6 February 2015

GCHQ censured over sharing of internet surveillance data with US

BBC News - GCHQ censured over sharing of internet surveillance data with US: "Before December, the IPT said: "The regime governing the soliciting, receiving, storing and transmitting by UK authorities of private communications of individuals located in the UK, which have been obtained by US authorities pursuant to Prism and... Upstream, contravened articles 8 or 10 [of the European Convention of Human Rights]."

Article 8 is the right to privacy, article 10 the right to freedom of expression.

The agency is now compliant, the tribunal said." 'via Blog this'

GCHQ censured over sharing of internet surveillance data with US

BBC News - GCHQ censured over sharing of internet surveillance data with US: "Before December, the IPT said: "The regime governing the soliciting, receiving, storing and transmitting by UK authorities of private communications of individuals located in the UK, which have been obtained by US authorities pursuant to Prism and... Upstream, contravened articles 8 or 10 [of the European Convention of Human Rights]."

Article 8 is the right to privacy, article 10 the right to freedom of expression.

The agency is now compliant, the tribunal said." 'via Blog this'

Tuesday 3 February 2015

1000 Days of Google: change in privacy policy after 3-year ICO investigation

Google to change privacy policy after ICO investigation | ICO: "Google introduced a new privacy policy in March 2012 combining around 70 existing policies for various services, but the ICO ruled that the new policy did not include sufficient information for service users as to how and why their personal data was being collected.

Google has now signed an undertaking committing to make further changes to the privacy policy to ensure it meets the requirements of the Data Protection Act and to take steps to ensure that future changes to its privacy policy comply, including user testing.

Whilst conducting its own investigation, the ICO has worked with other European Data Protection Authorities, as part of the Article 29 working party." 'via Blog this'

How TAFTA/TTIP's Regulatory Co-operation Body Will Undermine Sovereignty

Two Leaks Reveal How TAFTA/TTIP's Regulatory Co-operation Body Will Undermine Sovereignty And Democracy | Techdirt: "a leak back in December 2013 gave a clue about how it might be possible for the US and EU governments to promise that the TAFTA/TTIP agreement would not lower standards, and yet provide a way to dismantle those non-tariff barriers (pdf).

This would be achieved after TTIP was ratified, through the creation of a new body called the Regulatory Council, which would play a key role in how future regulations were made. Effectively, it would provide early access to all new regulations proposed by the US and EU, allowing corporations to voice their objections to any measures that they felt would impede transatlantic trade.

This regulatory ratchet would push standards downwards and reduce costs for business, but only gradually, and after TTIP had come into force -- at which point, nothing could be done about it.

 Since then, things have been quiet on the regulatory front, not least because corporate sovereignty in the form of investor-state dispute settlement emerged as the most contentious issue -- in Europe, at least -- which has rather eclipsed earlier concerns about this supranational regulatory body.

But now, in a single week, we have had two important leaks in this area, both confirming those initial ideas sketched out in 2013 are still very much how TAFTA/TTIP aims to bring about the desired regulatory harmonization.

Corporate Europe Observatory obtained a very recent draft copy of the EU's proposals for the chapter covering regulatory co-operation (pdf), which describes a new transatlantic organization, now called the Regulatory Cooperation Body." 'via Blog this'