Tag: Google
The Value of Data
Consumer data is an extremely valuable commodity today and one which generates a huge amount of revenue for search engines and social networking sites alike. However questions continue to be thrown up of whether it is fair to utilise people’s data unwillingly. Facebook has a tool called ‘Friend Finder’ which came under huge attack in 2010 from the German data protection authority, VZBV. The German data protection authorities appear to …
Google Take Data Sharing to New Level
Google’s latest move will ensure that all data will be shared between all of its services. The web giant claims this will enable them to better tailor search results. This will make Google’s business model stronger as they make revenue through targeted ads, which requires collecting data on consumer’s web behaviour. However as perhaps would be expected this has come under great criticism, particularly in France where the legality of …
Google finalises cleanup after UK data harvest
Google was in hot water earlier in the year when it emerged that the search giant’s Street View vehicles had been essentially stealing data from Wi-Fi networks up and down the UK. Now the firm has announced that it has permanently deleted all of this illicitly harvested data from its systems, in an attempt to restore confidence and good faith in its operations worldwide. Google not only deleted the Wi-Fi …
Leaked evidence hints that Chinese authorities hacked Google
The international furore surrounding the publishing of secret diplomatic communications by whistleblowing site Wikileaks, has revealed that Google is thought to have been hacked by the Chinese government earlier in the year, resulting in the ensuing face-off between the world’s largest country and the search giant. Media outlets from around the world, including the Guardian in the UK and the New York Times in the US, were provided with a …
ICO takes considered approach to Google data theft claims
The furore surrounding accusations levelled at Google, over the data harvesting allegedly carried out by its roving Street View vehicles will not be met with a rash, premature response from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), according to a spokesperson. The issue of Google’s alleged breach of the Data Protection Act, which occurred when Street View vehicles harvested personal data including email addresses and passwords from Wi-Fi networks around the country, …
Google’s covert data theft re-examined by ICO
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to reinitiate its examination of the way in which Google’s Street View vehicles harvested private data, including email addresses and passwords, while touring the UK in order to establish whether or not legal action against the search giant is necessary. Two months ago the ICO deemed Google to have been innocent of serious if unintentional data theft because it conluded the collection of information …
