CyberLaw Blog

Archive for April 23rd, 2009

Which? News: Google Street View doesn’t invade privacy says ICO

Information Commissioner greenlights Street View
23 April 2009

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ruled that Google’s controversial Street View service does not invade individual’s privacy.

Google’s Street View service – available as part of its Google Maps product – shows street-level photographs of major UK cities. Privacy International filed a complaint about Street View on the basis that the service had caused ‘distress and embarrassment’ to some individuals identified in the Street Level views.

Google Street View ‘common sense’

However, the ICO has issued a statement saying that ‘common sense’ must prevail and ruled that the service does not breach the UK’s Data Protection Act

David Evans, senior data protection practice manager, said: ‘As a regulator we take a pragmatic and common sense approach. Any images of people’s faces or number plates should be blurred. We emphasised the importance of blurring these images to protect people’s privacy and limit privacy intrusion. Google must respond quickly to deletion requests and complaints as it is doing at the moment. We will be watching closely to make sure this continues to be achieved in practice.’

Self-regulation ‘doesn’t work’ claim

Critics, however, say that this type of self-regulatory approach doesn’t work. ‘I’m not happy about leaving this [Street View] to a system of self-regulation. For example, what happens if Google doesn’t remove an image they’re requested to?’ said Yaman Akdeniz, a spokesperson for Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties.

Google, however, says it is pleased with the ICO’s decision: ‘We took care to build privacy considerations into Street View from the outset and have engaged with the ICO throughout the development process. Already millions of British people have benefited from Street View, whether to get driving directions, find local businesses, or explore a tourist destination. We recognise that a small minority of people may not wish their house to be included in the service, which is why we have created easy to use removals tools,’ says a company statement.

Residents in Milton Keynes previously attempted to stop a Google Street car photographing their street.

Big boost for Aussie firewall: “

Another shrimp on anti-prawnography trial barbie

The controversial Great Aussie Firewall got a big boost yesterday when Australia’s second largest ISP Optus agreed to join the pilot.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Pirate Bay judge and pro-copyright lobbyist accused of bias: “

Defence lawyer demands retrial

The judge in The Pirate Bay trial has been accused of bias, after Sweden’s national radio station revealed that Thomas Norström was a member of the same pro-copyright groups as several of the main entertainment industry reps in the case.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

UK privacy watchdog rejects Street View complaints: “Google’s controversial Street View service was today cleared by the UK
Information Commissioner’s Office of any breach of the Data Protection Act.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

The Independent: Campaigners call for tighter regulation of Facebook racists

Far-right groups are operating openly on the social networking website

By Jerome Taylor, The Independent, Thursday, 23 April 2009

Facebook has become a breeding ground for racists and far-right extremists, according to immigrant leaders and anti-racism campaigners, who believe the site’s owners are not doing enough to clamp down on cyberhate.

More than 200 million people around the world belong to the social networking site, which attracts thousands of new members every day. The site is used by its members to communicate, swap photographs and set up groups of like-minded people, many of which are overtly political.

But campaigners fear racists are increasingly setting up their own groups to promote a visceral hatred of foreigners and immigrants and say more needs to be done to police online racism.

The Federation of Poles in Great Britain has become so disturbed by some of the content online that it has written a letter to Facebook’s owner Mark Zuckerburg, calling on him to close down an anti-Polish group where one member said Polish people should be thrown ‘down the well’.

Jan Mokrzycki, a spokesman for the federation, which was created after the Second World War to support the Polish community in Britain, said: ‘Generally we try not to react against every inflammatory gesture against Polish people, but the language within the website was so rude and racist that we felt like we had no choice.’

He added: ‘I recognise that you can’t stop every racist website out there, but I would like to think that a supposedly respectable site like Facebook would have better checks and controls on what gets put on their site.’

Right-wing extremists have often used the relatively unregulated world of the internet to spread their message by creating their own websites which are often registered abroad. But their activity on social networking sites has given them a much more mainstream presence.

The sheer size of Facebook’s online community makes monitoring extremists difficult. But a number of groups calling on Britain to throw out, and even kill, foreign nationals have been operating freely for months.

A group called ‘People hate Pakis’ boasts more than 80 members and claims to have been set up by ‘rebels’ from Bradford, where inter-racial tension remains a major problem. A second group calling itself ‘Get all the Paki’s [sic] out of England’ has more than 140 members, many of whom use racist language which is illegal under laws prohibiting incitement to racial hatred.

Dennis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham whose father fled Poland before the Nazi invasion and fought for Britain during the Second World War, said social networking sites had allowed racists to talk openly without fear of reprisals.

‘The way you defeat extremism, intolerance, prejudice and racism is to atomise it and make people feel that even if they think racist thoughts they can’t say it openly,’ he said. ‘But websites like Facebook have unfortunately allowed people to come together in one space and say, ‘there are people out there like me’. That is something that worries me greatly. For all the good social networking sites do, they also allow people to express prejudice that in a civilised society should be kept under lock and key.’

Facebook declined to comment yesterday. But in the past its founder Mr Zuckerburg has been reluctant to overly police his invention, which instead relies on users to report racist and offensive behaviour. Under the website’s terms and conditions, posts which are ‘abusive, vulgar, hateful or racially and ethnically objectionable’ are banned but in reality very little content is moderated.

Searchlight, the anti-racism group which monitors far-right extremism on the web, said websites should do more to monitor overtly racist content.

‘It is vital that in those instances where there is clear evidence of hate mail being distributed, [that] internet service providers act firmly and swiftly to shut them down,’ said a spokesman. ‘We cannot allow cyberspace to become a hideout for the peddlers of hate.’

This morning Facebook confirmed that it had taken down the Bradford-based anti-Pakistani group and was investigating the others. A spokesperson said: ‘We want Facebook to be a place where people can discuss issues and current affairs, while respecting the rights and feelings of others. However, there is no place for content that is threatening, abusive, hateful, or racially or ethnically objectionable on the site and Facebook will remove any such content that violates our Terms of Use when it is reported.’

Common sense on Street View must prevail, says the ICO

Date: 23 April 2009

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published new advice on Google
Street View in response to a complaint from Privacy International.

David Evans, Senior Data Protection Practice Manager said: “As a regulator we take
a pragmatic and common sense approach. Any images of people’s faces or number
plates should be blurred. We emphasised the importance of blurring these images to
protect people’s privacy and limit privacy intrusion. Google must respond quickly to
deletion requests and complaints as it is doing at the moment. We will be watching
closely to make sure this continues to be achieved in practice.

“However, it is important to highlight that putting images of people on Google Street
View is very unlikely to formally breach the Data Protection Act. Watch the TV news
any day this week and you will see people walking past reporters in the street. Some
football fans’ faces will be captured on Match of the Day and local news programmes
this weekend – without their consent, but perfectly legally. In the same way there is
no law against anyone taking pictures of people in the street as long as the person
using the camera is not harassing people. Google Street View does not contravene
the Data Protection Act and, in any case, it is not in the public interest to turn the
digital clock back. In a world where many people tweet, facebook and blog it is
important to take a common sense approach towards Street View and the relatively
limited privacy intrusion it may cause.”

In July 2008 the ICO met with Google to discuss how Street View would be
implemented. The ICO stressed the importance of including a facility for individuals
to report images they were unhappy with and was satisfied that Google was putting
in place adequate safeguards to avoid unwarranted intrusions on people’s privacy.

The ICO has received a number of complaints and enquiries about Google Street
View. These include those from people who are unhappy that their image is on
Street View, those who are unhappy at the prospect of their/anyone else’s image
potentially appearing, as well as those who are positive about the idea. The ICO
receives over 100,000 telephone calls a year, including 25,000 data protection
related complaints.

The ICO has confirmed to Privacy International that the removal of an entire service
of this type would be disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment.
The ICO will keep the operation of Street View under review and take steps to
address issues raised by individuals who feel that Google has not removed
problematic images.

(Via TorrentFreak.)

Mobile Broadband Providers Block The Pirate Bay

Starting today, BT Mobile Broadband users are disallowed access to the largest BitTorrent tracker on the Internet, instead they get a ‘content blocked’ message. This proactive filtering mechanism is part of a voluntary self regulation scheme through which the the mobile broadband providers hope to keep children safe from all the horrors of the Internet.

The code of practice identifies several types of content that could be harmful to children, and encourages ISPs to filter these type of sites. Among the filtered content are gambling sites, pornographic material and hacking tutorials. BitTorrent or other file-sharing related sites are not blocked according to the code. It is not clear why The Pirate bay ended up on the block list, but the most plausible reason seems to be their diverse adult torrent collection.

The code doesn’t allow any sexually explicit material, legal or not, and The Pirate Bay does offer ‘links’ to such content, although it doesn’t carry any itself – sound familiar?

The reason why the code is specifically aimed at mobile providers is the increase in mobile devices youngsters have access to without oversight. All sites that have an ‘over 18′ status are included and all access to these sites is simply blocked. Customers who want to lift the block to one of the sites may do so by contacting customer service.

This is not the first time that The Pirate Bay, for one reason or another, has been blocked by Internet service providers. We’ve seen similar things happen in Italy, Turkey, Denmark and several other countries. However, this is the first time that the reason for the blockade is not copyright related.

Whether or not the code will prevent minors from seeing too much flesh is up for debate, but although the comparison between Google and The Pirate Bay has been a hot one this week, one thing is certain – there is a hell of a lot more porn to be found via a Google image search than is to be found on The Pirate Bay.

Failing that there’s always daddy’s porn mags to fall back on – quick, board up the newsstand.

Football giant changes season ticket terms after consumer protection protest: “Manchester United has amended the terms of its season tickets after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) took action under consumer protection legislation. The OFT identified potentially unfair terms, which have now been changed.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

British Council rapped over loss of sensitive data of 2,000 staff: “Privacy Regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has censured the British Council for losing the personal data of 2,000 staff. The ICO has made the Council sign a formal undertaking in which it promises to improve its data handling.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Wikipedia latest to reject Phorm ’snooping’ technology: “Wikipedia has joined Amazon.com in opting out of Phorm’s
controversial targeted advertising technology.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)