Dear Google: open letter from 80 academics on 'right to be forgotten'

Our open letter to Google published in today`s Guardian seeking the disclosure of compliance data in relation to its implementation of the right to be forgotten.

And Google`s response. Let`s see how this balancing exercise translates in practice and what concrete outputs are circulated. 

Weekly Cyber-Law News Round

Wow this week has flown by so quickly: where did it all go?!! It has been quite exciting week in terms of legal developments in the area of cyberspace. The usual suspects are in the news: Google Street View, Facebook, piracy, and privacy. But it has also been a week of great significance for copyright laws in the UK (adoption of the Gallo report), and some surprising developments in trademarks law (woman claiming trademark protection for her name).

My pick of the top cyber-law news for this week in descending chronological order:

• Legal row over who can use the word 'pod' #Apple #USPatentOffice http://tinyurl.com/36gcvqw

• Channel islanders attack Street View car http://tinyurl.com/3yy5kck

• US Senate considers update to Electronic Communications #Privacy Act http://bit.ly/9prdfQ

• Spanish court rules that #YouTube is nt liable 4 breach of #copyright re YouTube/#Telecinco copyright dispute http://tinyurl.com/2fmx23z

• Facebook Ends Conversion Tracking For Ads http://tinyurl.com/2e55a9h

• Google tackles rogue pharmacies in court #consumer protection http://tinyurl.com/33zf5pp

• EU Parliament adopt #Gallo Report on pan-European #copyright laws http://tinyurl.com/2ueykrw

• Proposed US law could force ISPs to block websites on piracy allegations http://tinyurl.com/34k935z

• Ontario Privacy Commissioner says Facebook has addressed privacy concerns http://tinyurl.com/295ywcy

• Google's 'Street View' banned for privacy invasion Czech Republic's privacy watchdog says Google http://bit.ly/cgJrA9

• Lawsuits Filed Over “Zombie” Cookies http://tinyurl.com/3966lop #privacy

• US Autodesk decision gives software company the tool to prevent the resale of licensed software by unauthorised third parties http://tinyurl.com/33u2bev #in

• Google's new Transparency Report logs government requests for personal info, takedown requests and blocking: http://bit.ly/dueLKf
  

• Lawyers Sued Over Blog Posts Criticizing Referral Hotline for Personal Injury Cases http://is.gd/flsUg

• Street View prompts privacy code in Germany http://tinyurl.com/3xsfmwq

• Code That Tracks Users’ Browsing Prompts Lawsuits http://tinyurl.com/39dl8lj

• Online hotel bookings to be probed for price-fixing by OFT http://tinyurl.com/33jr89p

• HP and Oracle settle dispute over Mark Hurd #confidentiality http://tinyurl.com/342wlvy

• Woman Trademarks Her Name, Says No One Can Use It Without Her Permission http://ow.ly/2GSXx

• Germany opposes Google Street View switch-on http://tinyurl.com/3xsfmwq

Hope you guys enjoy the new weekly cyber-law news round!

If you thought that only your friends/network could read your status updates, then you will soon be wrong!

It has been reported today that both MySpace and Facebook have signed a deal with Google which will allow its users` publicly available status updates to be fully searchable on the search engine. Google has a similar agreement with Twitter and it is reported that the new agreement with Facebook and MySpace will go live in a few days.

This is a very worrying development for MySpace and Facebook users who have had no say in this matter and will now have their status updates fully searchable and visible on Google to all and sundry if they have not changed their default privacy settings. Past research has shown that most Facebook users use default privacy settings (rather than higher ones) which means that their accounts are fully visible to the rest of Facebook users in their networks. This new deal will also mean now that their updates will be fully indexed and searchable via Google. Cyber Panda thinks that in the new few days, Facebook/MySpace users as well as privacy bodies will raise the alarm bell which will force the companies to either rethink this deal or provide more protection for users` data.

Google now stores your personal data for only nine months.

BBC News has today reported that Google will reduce the period of time over which it stores the personal data of its users from 18 months to 9 months. The move follows the continuous pressure Google has been facing from the EU`s Article 29 Working Body ('Working Body'). The information usually stored includes the serch query, the IP number and web browser used. Google justifies the storage of such information by using the very dubious reason of product improvement and security reasons.

The move still leaves Google lagging behind the recommended 6 months storage period recommended by the Working Body. It is dubious whether the recent move by Google will be enough to assuage the concerns of the Working Body as the reason for storing and processing personal data has still not been sufficiently explained by Google. The very general reason given by Google appears to be no more than hogwash and it will be interesting to see what their response will be when they are queried over the new storage period (ie. why is it 9 months rather than 6 months).

Disclaimer: The rights to the logo used above belong to Google.

Google Chrome EULA Take 2!!

Proof that the big suits do sometimes listen. Google has now reworded the EULA of Google Chrome and deleted its highly controversial provision concerning copyright licence which CyberPanda covered in an earlier post. The new provision rightly leaves the rights to any content posted on or through the browser to the Chrome user.

The monumental gaffe was explained by Google as being caused by the use of its Universal Terms of Service across its different offerings for the highly dubious and slightly incoherent reason of keeping 'things simple' for users. The spokesperson of Google went further to say that at times this may mean inclusion of term which do not apply 'well' to the product in question. One has to question the due diligence, expertise and legal skills of the lawyers employed by Google, if they actually leave terms and conditions which do not sit 'well' with a product in a contract governing its use. It is even more surprising that this gaffe occured given that a similar situation occured last year when Google launched Google Docs.

Disclaimer: The rights to the logo used above are owned by Google.