Jul 31
Twitter just released its latest transparency report detailing government requests for information requests, content removal requests and copyright takedowns. Not just one or two but all three categories are up in the first half of this year.
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Jul 16
On Monday, Yahoo won a court fight that will force the government to disclose secret information about a 2008 case that required Yahoo to hand over customer data. It’s icing on the cake for Marissa Mayer, who celebrates her one year anniversary at Yahoo this week. But more importantly, it could give us our clearest look at PRISM’s inner workings yet.
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Apr 25
Google Transparency Report shows censorship spike, details takedown requests
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Governments are getting nosier than ever, at least if you ask Google. The search firm has already noticed rapidly mounting censorship in recent months, but its latest half-year Transparency Report has revealed a 26 percent surge in takedown requests toward the end of 2012 — at 2,285 total, more than twice as many as in 2009. Much of the jump can be attributed to Brazil, whose municipal election triggered a rush of anti-defamation requests from candidates, as well as a Russian blacklisting law that allows for trial-free website takedowns.
Whether or not the heat dies down in 2013, we’ll have a better sense of just what happens when a YouTube request comes down the pipe. From now on, Google will say whether government-based demands to remove videos were based on YouTube’s Community Guidelines or were directly linked to regional laws. Google isn’t any more inclined to comply with such requests — it argues those Brazilian clips are free speech, for example — but we’ll have a better sense of just how easy it is for the company to say no.
Via: Google Official Blog
Source: Google Transparency Report
Apr 10
EU countries to allow reuse of public data, including from libraries and museums
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Believe it or not, the European Union’s public data hasn’t been very public: despite a 2003 directive, there wasn’t a clear right to reuse weather or other vital data, whether it’s for an app or a service. Logic is taking hold now that 27 countries on an EU Council committee have endorsed a European Commission revision opening the floodgates. The new rules would require that EU countries explicitly permit citizens and companies to reuse public information, either for free or no more than the basic cost of sending it out. The revamp would also push availability in open formats, along with expanding the directive’s coverage to archives, libraries and museums — you know, repositories of nothing but public knowledge. Both the European Parliament and individual governments will have to sign the changes into law sometime in the (likely not-so-near) future, but the shift could lead to a sudden wealth of data for Euro-centric hardware and software.
Via: GigaOM
Source: European Commission (1), (2)
Mar 21
Microsoft posts its first Law Enforcement Requests Report, shows US-centric scrutiny
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Civil liberty advocates have had access to Google’s Transparency Report and a handful of equivalents to understand just how frequently governments want our data. But what if we spend most of our time in Outlook.com, Skype or Xbox Live? Microsoft wants to show that it’s equally concerned, and it’s accordingly publishing its first-ever Law Enforcement Requests Report to reveal just how much attention the police gave to our information in 2012. The gist? While there were 75,378 international requests, 99 percent of the 1,558 actual content disclosures went straight to American agencies — thankfully, with court warrants. Microsoft did get its fair share of FBI National Security Letter requests, although those may be short-lived. Different Microsoft services also received different levels of attention: Skype handed over certain account details but no actual content, while enterprise users were virtually untouched from Microsoft’s position. The company plans to keep publishing these reports in the future, which should give us a better long-term sense of just how we’re put under the microscope.
Filed under: Internet, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Feb 06
When Instagram announced its updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy back in December, the Internet went into a tizzy in large measure because people didn’t really understand what was going on. Now, there’s a watchdog service that tracks the changes of many of the most popular online services so that we’re armed with real evidence when we freak out. More »
Jan 28
Last June, Twitter hopped on the transparency train and released its first report indexing information requests, copyright takedown notices, and removal requests from governments around the globe. Now the second report is out, with its own site and some new details on what the U.S. government in particular is doing. And weirdly enough, copyright takedown requests are actually down from the past six months. More »
Oct 24
Huawei gives Australia peeks at its network hardware and code to regain trust
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Huawei has had an image problem lately among countries skittish about trusting a Chinese telecom giant with the backbone of networks that its home government might like to snoop. The company’s Australian chairman John Lord thinks that’s just paranoia, and he’s planning radical transparency in the country to recover what trust he can after Huawei lost a National Broadband Network deal. The firm is willing to give the Australian government “unrestricted” access to both networking hardware and source code to prove that there’s no espionage afoot. Lord even likes the idea a domestic inspection agency that would greenlight equipment across the industry. All of the proposals represent a one-way conversation, however — Canberra hasn’t said if it’s receptive enough to drop the cold attitude. There’s a distinct chance that any successful return to favor wouldn’t come soon enough to recover the most lucrative contracts, which could make any Australian change of heart a Pyrrhic victory.
Filed under: Networking, Internet
Huawei gives Australia peeks at its network hardware and code to regain trust originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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