The data center in Luleå, Sweden, is highly energy-efficient as it uses hydroelectric power. It may also prove handy in keeping Facebook on the right side of European data protection legislation. Read more »
In a brief debate on Tuesday, all major groups in the Parliament expressed either concern or outright anger at the PRISM program and the way it treats EU citizens’ data. Read more »
After it emerged that the U.S. National Security Agency is apparently tapping into the Google and Facebook communications of people around the world, EU data protection officials and activists have started asking questions. Read more »
The revelation that U.S. spies are able to monitor communications over Google, Facebook and other American web firms’ platforms will have a big impact overseas, and nowhere more so than in Europe. Read more »
The titans of the web are rebels, playing by their own rules. That is to be applauded at times, but we should also be thinking about the wider, long-term implications for society and fair competition. Read more »
British privacy advocates have reacted with horror to the idea of EE and market research firm Ipsos Mori selling anonymized customer data. On balance, they shouldn’t worry so much. Read more »
The UK-sited data center, which should help settle the compliance worries of many of Salesforce’s European customers, will be completed in 2014. The firm is also running a €5 million Innovation Challenge for EU startups. Read more »
The platform-as-a-service outfit has taken its first non-U.S. region out of private beta. However, although it runs out of Ireland, some personal data may still be routed through the U.S. Read more »
The fine relates to Google’s accidental scraping of personal data, using the company’s Street View cars, from people’s open Wi-Fi access points back in 2010. Read more »
A group of data protection officials from across Europe has published its opinion on smartphone apps. It makes for ugly reading, as the fragmentation of the mobile ecosystem renders compliance near-impossible. Read more »
A survey by the analyst house Ovum has found a similar antipathy towards online tracking on both sides of the Atlantic. And that, they say, could have big implications for big data. Read more »
Can a single vendor dominate the public cloud services market in Europe as Amazon has managed to do in the US? It’s not very likely. The single biggest reason is obvious: Europe is not the US. Read more »
The social network has bowed to the demands of privacy regulators across the EU and axed its facial recognition features for European users. However, it plans to bring the functionality back once it’s figured out how to give its users real privacy choice. Read more »
Stringent data protection rules have proven a big obstacle to cloud adoption in Europe, but now the continent’s privacy watchdogs want to make things more straightforward. How? They’re recommending external inspections on cloud providers in the U.S. and elsewhere. Read more »
UK web publishers and marketers may be grumbling about the E-Privacy Directive coming into force, but they can count themselves lucky that they’re not dealing with stricter interpretations of the law that are happening elsewhere across Europe. Read more »
Microsoft’s Bing StreetSide service was offering a welcome replacement for Google’s out-of-date Street View imagery in Germany, but now privacy complaints have seen it taken offline. When will somebody realize these complaints have gone too far? Read more »
Facebook is giving users the chance to download more of the information that it holds about them than ever before, but the small group of Austrian law students who forced the change say the social network is still holding back. Read more »
Amazon Web Services Storage Gateway is the company’s first foray into the on-premises cloud-storage space. But a number of vendors are attacking the on-premises cloud-storage gateway market too. Do these offerings signal the death of the cloud gateway as an appliance or simply validation of the market? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As America and Europe try to harmonize their data protection regulations, startups in Berlin explain the benefits of a more level playing field. Read more »
Facebook has been slapped down again by the German authorities over privacy problems with its Friend Finder feature — but while reports suggest the social network has fixed the problem, the consumer group that launched the complaint says it is still not happy. Read more »
With the launch of Google’s new privacy policy — which gives it the ability to share personal data across all of its services — European regulators are questioning its legality. Here’s what the web is saying about the spat. Read more »
Reports this weekend suggest that Facebook is about to face a new crackdown from European authorities over the way it collects data on users — but closer inspection suggests that it is just the latest episode in an ongoing struggle between EU officials and technology companies. Read more »
