Google Maps get GB transport data

14 May 2014 Last updated at 00:05 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Google has added coast-to-coast public transport information for the whole of Great Britain to its Maps app.

It said the data included departure times and routes for buses, ferries, trains and trams in England, Scotland and Wales.

It is not the first app to do so. Rome2Rio's UK Transport Search app already provided similar coverage.

But the body supplying the data said that the huge popularity of Google's service meant its move was significant.

"It's an amazing shop window for our operators' services," said Julie Williams, chief executive of Traveline - a partnership of Great Britain's transport operators and local authorities.

"The presentation and way Google has pulled together the data looks exceptional - we've not seen anything like that before."

The search giant will also make the information available via its desktop Maps service.

Of the other big-brand services:

• Nokia's Here Transit also uses some of Traveline's data but is limited to the mainland, meaning its excludes ferries to the Isle of Lewis among other routes. However, Nokia does include live train information rather than the timetable information used by Google
• Apple does not currently offer public transit information in its maps software
• Microsoft's Bing Maps does offer information about a limited number of UK operators, and recently contacted Traveline to discuss adding more

"Google is the all-dominant leader in mapping, but it has to keep innovating because that's what stops its competitors nibbling into its market share," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.

"If it doesn't keep making changes it would leave the door open for somebody else."

Mind the gaps

While Google had previously provided transit data for parts of Great Britain, it had lacked coverage in much of Wales, the Midlands and northern England.

A search for transport between Llandysul and Cenarth, for example, brought up no results despite it taking less than an hour to travel between the two Welsh destinations by bus.

Gaps such as this have now been plugged, with the firm using Traveline's data to create graphics that compare how the various available options differ.

In total, schedules from nearly 1,500 different transport operators have been integrated, including more than 17,000 different routes and more than 330,000 pick-up points

"It's a frightening amount of data," Google's public transport product manager David Tattersall told the BBC.

"It's every single train, bus, tram and ferry right down to the small request stops as well as the major National Express coaches."

Google Now

Traveline was created in 2000, and has allowed the public to search its timetables via the state-funded but basic-looking Transport Direct website or by calling its call centres

It also began offering others access to its raw data three years ago.

"I was surprised initially that we didn't get more people taking it," said Ms Williams.

"Open data users said they wanted to do stuff with it, but after we produced it they said: 'Well, that's quite complicated.'

"One of the things that Google is able to do because of its size is put money into processing that data and bring it into its own system."

While Rome2Rio's app sometimes has to redirect users to the Transport Direct site, Google avoids this by converting all Traveline's data into the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) file format its systems recognise.

This means it can also make the information available to other app creators via its Maps application programming interface. This is provided free of charge to services with relatively low traffic but at a cost to others.

"Third-party developers will be able to take advantage of this and basically mash up [their services] with the API," Mr Tattersall said.

He added that Google would also use the data to enhance its own anticipatory search service, which suggests information before a user asks for it.

"If you're in Sheffield but live somewhere else, around home time Google Now will use this transit data to suggest some ways back," he gave as an example.

For the moment, such results are based on preset timetables rather than live transport information, with the exception of London where real-time data is used.

But Mr Tattersall said that his team was keen to make the wider transit service more reactive in the future.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yahoo buys self-destruct chat app

14 May 2014 Last updated at 05:24

Yahoo has acquired Blink, a mobile application that allows users to share messages that self-destruct, in order to poach the talent behind it.

The app will reportedly be shut down in the coming weeks so that Blink's seven-person team can work on Yahoo's "smart communication" products.

This includes former Google employees Kevin Stephens and Michelle Norgan, who founded Meh Labs, the start-up that created Blink.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Blink made the announcement on their website, saying they "look forward to the possibilities that will come from bringing the Blink vision to Yahoo".

"We built Blink because we believe everyone should be free to show the same honesty and spontaneity in their online conversations as they can in person."

Yahoo has reportedly bought 40 start-ups since chief executive Marissa Mayer took over two years ago in an attempt to revamp the internet company.

It has been looking to generate more mobile content and advertising revenues as an increasing number of people use tablets and smartphones.

Messaging apps

Blink has been competing against established rivals in private messaging such as Snapchat, and newer entrants like Confide and Wickr.

Its users can exchange texts, photos and videos that can only be viewed within a certain period of time before it self-deletes. A timer starts after the recipient taps their screen to open the message.

Messaging applications have been a popular target for larger, established internet companies looking to expand their product offerings.

Snapchat, which specialises in disappearing photos, reportedly received a multi-billion dollar offer from Facebook last year.

Facebook went on to create a similar app called Poke, which was discontinued last week.

The social networking giant also purchased popular messaging app Whatsapp for $19bn (£11.4bn) in February.

That same month, Japanese firm Rakuten bought free messaging app Viber for $900m.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Public funds US net neutrality ads

14 May 2014 Last updated at 13:48

Crowdfunded ads that aim to put pressure on a US regulator before it proposes new net neutrality rules have appeared in Washington DC.

The campaign was organised by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

It urges people to phone the watchdog and oppose it allowing telecom firms to charge for prioritised data delivery.

The Federal Communications Commission's five-member board will decide whether to proceed with drafted guidelines on Thursday.

Ahead of the vote, the FCC's senior lawyer hosted a Twitter chat in which she provided further details about the draft document being considered, which has not yet been made public.

Gigi Sohn tweeted that the document "asks if paid prioritization should be banned outright & seeks comment on best ways 2 protect innovators".

She added that the public would be given 60 days to comment on the proposals, and a further 60 to reply to others' posts before the FCC made a final decision.

But critics fear that the "open internet" proposals will fail to prevent the broadband firms charging content providers for a premium data transmission option.

"[They will] kill the idea of net neutrality and replace it with a 'cable-ised' version that costs more for consumers, enables discrimination across services that make use of the net, and makes it harder to access the stuff that we access each day today (from video streaming to file saving and sharing)," wrote Mr Ohanian.

"On top of all that, it'd have a chilling effect on entrepreneurship - all for the benefit of a few cable companies."

Social media campaign

The adverts have been placed at 30 bus stops in the US capital after a fundraising effort on Crowdtilt's website raised more than $21,000 (£12,520).

Electronic versions of the ad are also being shared across social media.

However, Mr Ohanian was not able to achieve his original plan to place the ad on a billboard "right in the FCC's backyard" - mirroring a similar tactic mounted against the author of a controversial anti-piracy law.

The FCC denies it is deliberately trying to destroy the principle of net neutrality but argues that it needs to clarify regulations after a court ruling earlier this year.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with telecoms firm Verizon in January after the firm challenged the FCC's previous instruction that broadband providers must treat all traffic equally.

Since then both Verizon and Comcast, another cable firm, have begun charging Netflix for direct access to their networks to ensure that its TV shows and movies are delivered at high speeds to avoid the problem of buffering.

"Right now there r no rules 2 protect open internet," tweeted Ms Sohn during the Twitter chat.

"Chairman wants 2 ensure all Americans can get unfettered access 2 the content & application they want."

Regulation dilemma

The FCC's chairman, Tom Wheeler, added that one "viable option" being considered was to have broadband internet access reclassified as a Title II "telecommunications service" rather than its current status as an "information service".

Doing so would potentially allow the regulator to block priority-access deals.

However, telecoms industry leaders have questioned whether the FCC has the power to do this, and warned of negative consequences.

"America's economic future... critically depends on continued investment and innovation in our broadband infrastructure and app economy to drive improvements in health care, education and energy," 28 of the industry's leaders wrote in a letter to the watchdog.

"Under Title II, new service offerings, options, and features would be delayed or altogether foregone.

"An era of differentiation, innovation, and experimentation would be replaced with a series of 'Government may I?' requests from American entrepreneurs."

Mr Wheeler has said another option would be to try to block deals that were not "commercially viable" by making reference to a section of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

However, the Save The Internet Campaign - supported by Mr Ohanian - suggests that this tactic would be destined to fail.

"If and when the FCC tried to prevent bad deals, the agency would lose again in court," it said.

"The revisions to Wheeler's [earlier] draft are encouraging on one level. They show that the chairman is trying to respond to the massive protests against his proposal. He just isn't listening closely enough."

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Court backs 'right to be forgotten'

13 May 2014 Last updated at 13:40

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Rory Cellan-Jones: "One can be sure that Google's lawyers will be trying to find a way out of this"

A top EU court has ruled Google must amend some search results at the request of ordinary people in a test of the so-called "right to be forgotten".

The European Union Court of Justice said links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased on request.

The case was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search results infringed his privacy.

Google said the ruling was "disappointing".

Continue reading the main story

Backers of the "right to be forgotten" are celebrating this ruling. EU Commissioner Viviane Reding has called it "a clear victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans".

But the judgement could have huge consequences for anyone who publishes material online about individuals, and they will urgently be asking their lawyers exactly what it means.

Can anyone who does not like an old story about them simply demand that it is wiped away? That does appear to be the case - the ruling says the rights of the individual are paramount when it comes to their control over their personal data, although there is a public interest defence when it comes to people in public life.

Google, having won at earlier stages of this legal battle, is both surprised and furious at this outcome. But it isn't clear that the search firm can do anything about it.

"We now need to take time to analyse the implications," a spokesperson added.

'Inadequate'

The search engine says it does not control data, it only offers links to information freely available on the internet.

It has previously said forcing it to remove data amounts to censorship.

The EU Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, welcomed the court's decision in a post on Facebook, saying it was a "clear victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans".

"The ruling confirms the need to bring today's data protection rules from the "digital stone age" into today's modern computing world," she said.

The European Commission proposed a law giving users the "right to be forgotten" in 2012.

It would require search engines to edit some searches to make them compliant with the European directive on the protection of personal data.

In its judgement on Tuesday, the court in Luxembourg said people had the right to request information be removed if it appeared to be "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant".

A right to be forgotten?

• In 2012, the European Commission published plans for a "right to be forgotten" law, allowing people to request that data about themselves to be deleted
• Online service providers would have to comply unless they had "legitimate" reason to do otherwise
• The plans are part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the commission's 1995 Data Protection Directive
• UK's Ministry of Justice claims that the law "raises unrealistic and unfair expectations"
• Some tech firms have expressed concern about the reach of the bill

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones says the ruling has huge consequences for anyone who publishes material online about individuals.

Continue reading the main story

From Google's perspective, a nightmare potentially awaits, given the possibility that floods of requests are about to come its way"

End Quote

It appears to say that anyone who does not like an old story about them can ask for it to be wiped away, he adds.

The judgement stresses that the rights of the individual are paramount when it comes to their control over their personal data, although there is a public interest defence when it comes to people in public life.

'No legal oversight'

The ruling came after Mario Costeja Gonzalez complained that a search of his name in Google brought up newspaper articles from 16 years ago about a sale of property to recover money he owed.

He said the matter had been resolved and should no longer be linked to him.

Campaign group Index on Censorship condemned the decision, saying it "violates the fundamental principles of freedom of expression".

"It allows individuals to complain to search engines about information they do not like with no legal oversight," it said.

"This is akin to marching into a library and forcing it to pulp books."

Mr Gonzalez's case is one of scores of similar cases in Spain whose complainants want Google to delete their personal information from their search results.

The court said people should address any request for data to be removed to the operator of the search engine, which must then examine its merits.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Legal complaint filed against GCHQ

13 May 2014 Last updated at 15:18

Privacy campaigners are seeking to stop GCHQ using "unlawful hacking" to help its surveillance efforts.

Privacy International said the UK intelligence service has infected millions of devices to spy on citizens and scoop up personal data.

A 30-page legal complaint has been filed with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal which monitors whether the UK's spying laws are being observed.

GCHQ said it had no comment to make on the legal complaint.

In a statement, the Privacy International pressure group said the documents released by Edward Snowden had detailed the many ways that GCHQ was spying on people, many of which violated the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees a right to privacy and to freedom of expression.

GCHQ and NSA programmes uncovered by Mr Snowden let the agencies listen via microphones, watch through webcams and scoop up detailed web browsing histories, said Privacy International.

Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said the surveillance was the modern equivalent of the government entering someone's house and reading their diary, correspondence and journals.

The freedom GCHQ and the NSA had to carry out surveillance was equivalent to "covert, complete, real-time physical and electronic surveillance", he said.

"Arbitrary powers such as these are the purview of dictatorships not democracies," he said. "Unrestrained, unregulated government spying of this kind is the antithesis of the rule of law and government must be held accountable for their actions."

The IPT has yet to respond to the filing of the complaint.

Prof Richard Aldrich, a lecturer at the University of Warwick who has written a history of GCHQ, said the agency was much more worried about such legal challenges than ever before as judges had become "much more unpredictable in this area" than they were a decade ago.

The legal challenge comes only days after the Home Affairs select committee said oversight of the intelligence agencies was "weak".

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Microsoft to sell Kinect-less Xbox

13 May 2014 Last updated at 16:49

Microsoft has announced plans to sell an Xbox One console that comes without the Kinect motion sensor.

The Kinect-less version of the Xbox One game console will be available worldwide from 9 June.

Unbundling the Kinect will cut the US price of the console to $399. In the UK it will be £350, the same price as Sony's PlayStation 4.

Microsoft said it made the decision to unbundle the Kinect to give gamers "more options".

It said it would start selling the Kinect separately in the autumn for those that want to add it to their Xbox One later.

Deep commitment

Introduced in 2010, the Kinect sensor watches the movement of a player and translates what they do into on-screen action. In addition, it lets players control what their console is doing by voice or gesture.

Yusuf Mehdi, head of Xbox business strategy, said Microsoft was taking the step in response to fan feedback.

"This decision wasn't made by ourselves," Mr Mehdi told the BBC. "We spent a lot of time speaking to our gaming partners and entertainment partners to balance the right feedback to meet their needs and our customers' needs."

"We remain deeply committed to the Kinect," said Mr Mehdi, adding that the sensing abilities of the peripheral were what helped to make the Xbox One console a "differentiated offering".

"I'm glad that we launched with Kinect," he said. "I'm glad that Kinect is a core part of the value proposition for Xbox One. I'm also pleased that we can continue to respond to customer feedback."

Tom Phillips, a staff writer at Eurogamer, said: "I think it's an admission of where Xbox One is in the market right now - behind PlayStation 4 in sales."

While Sony had been vocal about sales of the PS4, Microsoft had been very quiet about how the Xbox One and its flagship games were doing, he said.

"Its silence speaks volumes, and with Titanfall seemingly not attracting the desired level of Xbox One sales, this is the next solution," he said.

In addition to announcing the new Xbox One model, Microsoft said it was making it possible to watch Netflix, YouTube, Twitch and Hulu via the console without the need for an additional Xbox Live account.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hunger for bite with Tim Cook cools

13 May 2014 Last updated at 21:59

A lunch date with Tim Cook has sold for close to $330,000 (£196,000) on the auction website CharityBuzz.

That was just over over half of last year's haul, when the website auctioned a coffee meeting with the Apple boss.

The money will benefit the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

CharityBuzz declined to reveal the winner, who will get a one-hour lunch with Mr Cook at Apple headquarters (cost of travel not included).

Mr Cook also added a second prize on Twitter, which will give the winner a VIP seat at an upcoming Apple event.

CharityBuzz had estimated the value of the lunch date at around $100,000.

Part of the reason for the lower price tag could be that CharityBuzz implemented a finance authorisation requirement for anyone wishing to bid on the auction.

But while appetite for a bite with Mr Cook may have cooled (or Silicon Valley lovers might just prefer a well-brewed cup of coffee), his stock, much like Apple's, remains high.

An auction for a similar lunch date with former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke took in just over $70,000, and a still-open auction for a coffee date with AOL boss Tim Armstrong - which also includes a tour of HuffingtonPost Live and a taped interview - currently has zero bids.

Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, was one of the first to popularise a "lunch with the boss"-style charity auction 14 years ago.

Last year, lunch with the "oracle of Omaha" sold for more than $1m on eBay, off the record $3.5m winning bid in 2012.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sony to be unprofitable until 2015

14 May 2014 Last updated at 09:29

Japanese electronics giant Sony forecasts it will remain unprofitable until 2015 after a restructuring saw it exit the personal computer business.

The company said it expects a net loss of 50bn yen (£290m; $489m) this coming financial year.

It also swung to a loss of 125bn yen for the 12 months to March 2014.

The results put pressure on chief executive Kazuo Hirai, who pledged two years ago to return its underperforming electronics business to profit.

The firm has been struggling to turn around its television unit, which has been losing money due to stiff competition from Asian rivals such as Samsung Electronics.

Three profit warnings were issued in the past year, and Sony executives are set to forfeit their bonuses due to the weak results.

PC exit

Sony's fall from grace stems from slumping demand for its flagship products of televisions and computers.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Watch: Sony's electronic sales continue to struggle

As part of its restructuring, the firm exited the PC business by selling off its Vaio brand to Japan Industrial Partners earlier this year.

The company also announced 5,000 job cuts and has sold off other assets such as its US headquarters and its stake in Japanese satellite broadcaster Sky Perfect JSAT Holdings.

Sony chief financial officer Kenichiro Yoshida told an earnings briefing that it made sense to bow out of some businesses.

"In previous years the restructuring was mostly within business units and in manufacturing," he said. "This time the difference is that we are quitting businesses entirely."

Mr Hirai has also spun off Sony's TV manufacturing business into a separate unit, focusing its production on large-screen models.

Sony's TV unit has lost more than 700bn yen over the past decade, according to Bloomberg.

Future plans

The company plans to spend an additional 135bn yen on more restructuring in the coming year.

Sony has been betting on the sales of smartphones, cameras and game consoles like the PlayStation to help turn its fortunes around.

Last year, the company also came under pressure from activist shareholders to partially spin off its entertainment division, which has released movies such as Oscar winner "American Hustle".

However, Sony rejected the proposal saying the entertainment unit is "integral to Sony's strategy".

Sony's most recent film release, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, has raked in more than $146m (£86.5m) in US box office receipts and there are two further sequels in the pipeline.

The company is also exploring the possible launch of an internet-based pay television service in the US.

Earlier, Sony shares had closed 1.1% higher in Tokyo ahead of its earnings announcement.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Samsung pledges cancer compensation

14 May 2014 Last updated at 12:48

Samsung says it will compensate chip factory workers who developed cancer while working for the firm.

The company issued its first apology in a long-running dispute and withdrew from a legal bid to avoid paying out.

It brings the conflict one step closer to resolution only a month after talks appeared to have stalled.

But Samsung's chief executive Kwon Oh-hyun stopped short of admitting a direct link between working at the firm and developing leukaemia.

Mr Kwon said: "Several workers at our production facilities suffered from leukaemia and other incurable diseases, which also led to some deaths.

"We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology."

At a press conference, he said Samsung hoped to "resolve the issue with sincerity and earnestness". In a statement, he added: "We will make due compensation to the victims and the families."

'Another Promise'

Mr Kwon said that Samsung had failed to pay "careful attention to the pain and difficulty" of the victims and their families.

An independent adjudicator would be set up in order to decide how to deal with each case with fairness and objectivity, with consent from the victims and the families, and Samsung would follow the compensation guidelines determined by it, Kwon said.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology."

End Quote Kwon Oh-hyun Samsung chief executive

The world's top chip and smartphone maker did not say how many people might be compensated. But, according to Agence France-Presse, about 40 employees have filed claims with the state Korean Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service in the past six years.

Previously Samsung has pointed to independent studies that found no link between its workplace environment and employee illnesses, and there was no admission of a direct link in its statement on Wednesday.

The cases of two of the workers who developed leukaemia were made into films recently, and the families of those affected have been fighting Samsung in the courts.

One of the films, called Another Promise, tells the story of Hwang Sang-ki and his daughter Yu-mi, who died after working for Samsung for four years. The film was crowd-funded and the Korea Herald called its production a "meaningful achievement in Korean cinema".

Yu-mi's father insisted her death was a result of her being exposed to dangerous chemicals while working for Samsung at the chip factory in Giheung, just south of Seoul.

The case of Hwang Yu-mi, who died in 2007, brought to light what has become a major controversy for Samsung. The family has been fighting a legal battle against the company since her death.

For legal reasons, Samsung was not named in the film but the title alluded to one of its well-known slogans: "Another Family".

In 2011, the families who joined the battle were given a boost when a Seoul court said toxic chemicals "had caused, or at least expedited" Yu-mi and one other worker's condition.

Continue reading the main story

Samsung around the world

• Samsung employs 286,000 people across 80 countries
• Its annual sales total $216.7bn (£129bn)

On April 16, Yonhap reported that Samsung was refusing to take the blame in talks with workers over diseases allegedly linked to working conditions at the firm's semiconductor plants. There was reportedly confusion over whether a third party should be brought in to mediate.

Earlier that month, South Korean politician Sim Sang-jung, along the victims and their families, demanded that Samsung take responsibility and pay compensation. On Wednesday, Mr Kwon invited Ms Sim to participate in the talks over the issue.

Ms Sim has called on Samsung and the South Korean government to apologise over 243 cases in which semiconductor factory workers have developed or died from rare cancers. A resolution she proposed in April said that 114 of the cases involved former Samsung employees.

Samsung said it would set up an independent panel of experts to hold health and safety inspections of its chip plants and help prevent a recurrence of the illnesses.

The company also said it would no longer assist a government compensation agency in its legal battle over its refusal to pay compensation to workers.

According to Yonhap, Samsung also refused to comment on another dispute which involves the company asking an activist group whose members include the victims' families, to obtain a power of attorney from all related victims.

The Protector of Health and Human Rights of Semiconductor Workers (Sharp) wanted to take the step in order to make itself a legitimate negotiation party.

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Europe Google ruling 'astonishing'

14 May 2014 Last updated at 14:40 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

A ruling forcing Google to remove search results has been described as "astonishing" by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

The European Courts of Justice ruled on Tuesday that an individual could demand that "irrelevant or outdated" information be deleted from results.

Mr Wales said it was "one of the most wide-sweeping internet censorship rulings that I've ever seen".

Google has said it is looking into the implications of the decision.

Mr Wales, speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, said: "I suspect this isn't going to stand for very long.

"If you really dig into it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. They're asking Google... you can complain about something and just say it's irrelevant, and Google has to make some kind of a determination about that.

Continue reading the main story

This is exactly what the data protection reform is about"

End Quote Viviane Reding European Commission

"That's a very hard and difficult thing for Google to do - particularly if it's at risk of being held legally liable if it gets it wrong in some way.

"Normally we would think whoever is publishing the information, they have the primary responsibility - Google just helps us to find the things that are online."

He added: "I would expect that Google is going to resist these claims quite vigorously.

"I think they would be foolish not to because if they have to start coping with everybody who whines about a picture they posted last week, it's going to be very difficult for Google."

'Eerie parallel'

On Tuesday, a top EU court ruled that Google must remove search results at the request of ordinary people in a test of the so-called "right to be forgotten".

The case was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search results infringed his privacy.

Google said the ruling was "disappointing".

The ruling has provoked a flurry of reaction speculating on the wider implications of the EU's decision.

In the Guardian, journalist James Ball described the ruling as "either an eerie parallel with China's domestic censorship of search results, or a huge incentive for tech investment to get the hell out of Europe".

He added: "Neither, presumably, is a remotely desirable result."

Conservative MP and former shadow home secretary David Davis backed the court's decision, saying: "The presumption by internet companies and others that they can use peoples personal information in any way they see fit is wrong, and can only happen because the legal framework in most states is still in the last century when it comes to property rights in personal information."

Beyond Europe

In the US, Slate's Lily Hay Newman argued that if taking down search results became the norm, another problem may arise.

"A case could be made that this may give people a false sense of security," she wrote. "Sure, if you remove something from Google or Bing, most people won't be able to find it anymore. But it still exists, and interested parties may be able to find it."

Also looking at implications beyond Europe, Canada's Financial Post quotes lawyer Geoff White as saying "I think some privacy advocates might leverage this decision to recommend that Canada follow a similar path, particularly with minors."

Coverage in the Washington Post reflected the view that the ruling would put Europe firmly at odds with the more hands-off approach taken by the US government on data privacy.

A different perspective, and one certainly not expressed by Google, was offered by law firm CompactLaw: "We would argue that the 'right to be forgotten' is a fundamental right for living a life online.

"We would also argue that enshrining this right will actually encourage more sharing and personal content - so will actually benefit media companies like Google."

European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding, who has led the EU's data privacy efforts, took to her Facebook page immediately after the ruling.

"The ruling confirms the need to bring today's data protection rules from the 'digital stone age' into today's modern computing world where data is no longer stored on 'a server', or once launched online disappears in cyberspace," she wrote.

"This is exactly what the data protection reform is about - making sure those who do business in Europe, respect European laws and empowering citizens to take the necessary actions to manage their data."

And despite first being published in 2012, this assessment of the key issues around the "right to be forgotten" was circulated widely on social media after the ruling. In it, professor of law Jeffrey Rosen concluded that whichever way any future law evolved, "it's hard to imagine that the Internet that results will be as free and open as it is now".

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

23.59 | 0 komentar | Read More