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News

• Facebook, Google face EU crackdown over user data

  Internet giants such as Facebook and Google could soon be forced to reveal more to European Internet users about what they are doing with personal data.

• Google CEO: China's Internet censorship will fail in time

  China's strict controls on its Internet usage will eventually fail as more of the country's people go online and express themselves, said Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

• Street View goes live in Germany with blurred images

  Google gingerly launched a select set of Street View images for Germany on Tuesday, a country where it has faced some of the most fierce opposition to the imagery application.

• RIM gets partial solution, reprieve in India

  India said that Research In Motion's BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service will continue to be available after Oct. 31, the deadline the government had given RIM to provide interception of communications to Indian law enforcement agencies.

• Italy opens investigation into Google data gathering

  Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into Google for allegedly violating the country's privacy laws through the data collected for the Internet company's Street View service, newspapers reported Thursday.

• FTC closes investigation into Google's Wi-Fi snooping

  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has closed an investigation into Google Street View cars snooping into open Wi-Fi networks, with the agency declining to take action.

• Third trial to begin in $1.92M music piracy case

  A third trial is set to begin in a bitter, closely watched legal battle between Minnesota native Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

• Google: 2.9 per cent of German households shun Street View

  Close to 250,000 German households have requested that Google scrub their homes from its Street View imagery program as the company nears launching the service in Germany amid continuing privacy concerns.

• Spain moves to fine Google over Street View

  The Spanish Data Protection Agency is preparing to fine Google over infractions against local data protection laws when it collected Wi-Fi data as part of its Street View service, it said in a statement on Monday.

• Lawmakers hit Facebook CEO with privacy questions

  Two members of the U.S. Congress Tuesday hit Facebook with a series of questions about the latest privacy issues surrounding the site's most popular applications.

• French government may subsidize music downloads, says EU

  The European Commission has approved a French program to subsidize legal music downloads for young people.

• FCC to address mobile 'bill shock'

  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is poised to move forward on "simple and practical" rules intended to help mobile-phone customers avoid unexpected charges, the agency's chairman said Wednesday.

• North Korea opens up Internet for national anniversary

  North Korea appears to have made its first full connection to the Internet. The connection, planning for which has been going on for at least nine months, came as the reclusive country prepares to mark the 65th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea with a massive celebration and military parade.

• How Hitler's downfall mocks your ideals

  A short clip from a 2004 movie about Adolf Hitler has ended up speaking for a generation of discontented Internet surfers, as well as pushed the boundaries of copyright law, noted a Massachusetts Institute of Technology social networking researcher who discussed the reasons behind the clip's wide appeal at the Open Video Conference in New York last Friday.

• Five reasons why legislation to limit outsourcing fails

  Congress headed home this week to focus on mid-term election campaigns, and offshore outsourcing is certain to be a topic of interest to many voters.