Google’s Case in the United Kingdom Could Clarify Country’s Privacy Laws

The Information Commissioner’s Office had intervened between Google and a group of UK Internet users because of its interests to clarify the jurisdiction of the country’s privacy laws.

The UK Internet users allege that Google used cookies to track their browsing activity using Apple’s Safari browser in 2011 and 2012 against their wishes. The case has been ongoing since 2013. This follows an earlier failed lawsuit against Google in the United States where the allegations could not be proved because the victims do not have evidence they were harmed.

However, the US FTC had fined google with $22.5 million for secretly bypassing Safari settings to 

collect information from unwilling users.

The UK High Court initially rejected the argument of the UK web users, which prompted the group to move their case into the United States. At this point, Google went to the Court of Appeal to try to overturn the ruling. This is when UK’s ICO intervened by submitting written evidence to the court.

According to an ICO Spokesman, it is interested in the case because it clarifies the issues about the jurisdiction of the law to serving civil claims against foreign companies. The ICO submitted written evidence to provide classes of personal data under the UK Data Protection act and when personal data processing is taking place.

Source

Google “US Digital Millennium Copyright Act” Complaint to Have New Partner

Whenever we search Google for a download of a song from some server (of course, illegally), Google will flag certain websites and results. Indicating at the bottom of its page, it would say Google had removed a number of results from the page after it received complaints from the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This became famous with many first-time Google users who thought they could find some direct download links.

After the EU courts had ruled that Google consent to the requests of the “right to be forgotten,” Google will now be adding a new message below search results. When people search for individual names, it will now show that it removed a number of results because of the European Court of Justice’s ruling for an individual’s right to be forgotten.

Truthfully, I can see from other articles that Google is against the ruling, but is powerless to act against it, but I can also see the bright side. Google can expose pretty much everything about an individual, including some salacious and obscene things they have done, which is recorded on media.

This is great and all, especially for those wanting to “start over” to help elevate their careers, but the real problem is the servers. If the media is still stored in an external server, Google could only block, but not completely remove it.

But now, at least we’re going to see two flagging messages from Google.