2 Google execs probed over abuse video
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Italian authorities are targeting two Google executives over videos the site displayed showing a disabled youth being abused.
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Officials in India's technology industry expressed anger and concern over the jailing of the CEO of eBay's Indian subsidiary related to the online sale of a sex video. The U.S. State Department has also made inquiries about the case.
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US regulators begin examining Google's planned takeover of internet advertising specialist Doubleclick.
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Viacom is up in arms over a new YouTube proposal, and Google is searching for an attorney to help the company tackle the media-sharing issues that the search giant inherited with its controversial YouTube acquisition.
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SUN VALLEY, Idaho  - Google Inc.  on  Friday took a swipe at media conglomerate Viacom Inc.   which is suing for $1 billion over "massive copyright  infringement" by its video sharing Web site YouTube.
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Legal experts are split in their evaluation of Google's defense strategy in two copyright-infringement lawsuits, particularly regarding the company's arm-twisting attempts to extract confidential information from uninvolved competitors.
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A US congressional subcommittee is investigating Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick Inc. , the panel's chairman said.
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A former Hewlett-Packard Co.   board member has asked U.S. prosecutors, as well as  U.S. trade and communications regulators, to review an HP  investigation in which directors' and journalists' private  phone records were accessed.
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(InfoWorld) - European data protection officials are expanding their examination of the impact search engines have on privacy, afterÂ initially targeting Google Inc. last month, European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx said in an interview late Wednesday. A panel of European data protection officials called the Article 29 Working Group decided Wednesday to request information from Google's rivals amid concerns that search engines are holding onto information about the people who use them for too long, Hustinx said. Hustinx, a senior member of the working group, declined to name the companies. However, they are believed to include Yahoo Inc., Lycos Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live.com. The working group will make a general assessment of the state of European citizens' privacy in relation to search engines at its meeting in October or December, he said. "We will issue a generic paper from which national data protection authorities can address players in their jurisdictions," Hustinx said Google does present specific problems, he added, because so many of its services pose a possible threat to privacy. He mentioned Google Earth and Gmail, Google's Web-based e-mail service. Compiling information about people from the various different Web services could compound the threat to privacy, he said. Google has already replied to the letter it received from the working group last month. "The use of the Internet the way Google is doing it could introduce tremendous privacy problems. We will study the company's response to our letter very carefully," Hustinx said. "If the picture they give is not accurate or not justified we might find ourselves on a collision course," he said, but he added, "That's not my sense at the moment." In Google's response , the company offered to shorten the time it keeps Web searches to 18 months from two years. The company also promised to look at shortening the lifespan of cookies it deposits on computers. Google presently stores cookies, including ones that remember what language a person speaks, for 30 years. Google's cooperation impressed Hustinx until now. "I welcome a big company that is investing in privacy. This isn't just window dressing," he said, echoing comments he made at a data protection conference last month in Amsterdam. Broadening its examination beyond Google is an obvious next step, according to Danny Sullivan, who writes for searchengineland.com. He compared the cookie policies of Google, Windows Live and Yahoo and found that Yahoo stores the data for as long as Google while Windows Live stores the information for 14 years. However, Windows Live deposited far more cookies on computers than Google and Yahoo. Using a clean version of Windows Internet Explorer 7, Sullivan set it to reveal all cookies. Windows Live left 14 cookies as soon as he did a search; Yahoo left six, while Google left just two. "Both Google and Yahoo have 30-year cookies. So where's the letter for Yahoo from the Working Group? And isn't 14 years from Microsoft excessive?" Sullivan wrote. Yahoo and Microsoft both say they take privacy very seriously. "Microsoft has a long-term commitment to providing customers with control over the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information. While we have not received formal communication from the Article 29 Working Party, we recognize that online search is creating legitimate concerns about privacy and are actively engaged with data protection authorities around the world to ensure that our practices meet the highest standards when it comes to protecting privacy," Microsoft said in a statement. "Our users' trust is one of Yahoo's most valuable assets. That's why maintaining that trust and protecting our users' privacy is paramount to us. Our data retention practices vary according to the diverse nature of our services," Yahoo said. Â
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(InfoWorld) - That explosive H-1B YouTube video offering advice on how to hire foreign workers instead of Americans has gotten the attention of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who called it evidence of abuse of the visa program. Both men want a federal investigation and are seeking answers from the law firm that posted the original video on YouTube. In a letter to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Grassley and Smith characterized the video as "exposing the blatant disregard for American workers and deliberate attempt to bring in cheaper foreign workers through the H-1B program." They also want the labor secretary to review the video and investigate "the law firm's unethical procedures and advice to clients." In the video, a person identified as Lawrence Lebowitz, an attorney at the firm Cohen & Grigsby PC in Pittsburgh, Penn., explains how U.S. companies can avoid hiring U.S. workers. "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said Lebowitz in the video. "And that, in a sense, sounds funny, but it's what we are trying to do here." Grassley and Smith also wrote Cohen & Grigsby, noting that "your firm's video advises employers how to hire only foreign labor, while making it nearly impossible for a qualified American worker to get the job.... While many companies insist that they are not participating in fraud, many are finding loopholes around government rules and regulations in order to bring in cheaper foreign workers. These loopholes lead to abuse that ultimately displace qualified Americans. The abuse is evident thanks to a video produced by your firm...." They also noted that the video "advises potential employers that they can fulfill" Labor Department hiring requirements "by advertising the position in places where they will not find the most qualified applicants. Your firm asserts that an employer can advertise in regional publications with limited circulation, while internally listing the job for a foreign worker. We would like you to please explain how this practice does not constitute outright discrimination based on nationality and why your firm so blatantly promotes this type of behavior." The law firm had taped a seminar on immigration law it held in May and then posted the video on YouTube, possibly for training purposes. The firm has not responded to repeated requests for comment this week. The two letters, dated today, were initially posted online at the University of California, Davis by Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the school and one of the longest-standing critics of the H-1B program. Matloff, in an e-mail said, "This 'YouTube-Gate' incident should be an eye opener for people in the press and in Congress who have been taking the industry lobbyists at face value all these years." The tape was brought to light by the Programmers Guild, a Summit, N.J.-based professional association after guild president Kim Berry said he was alerted to it by activists. He made a copy of an excerpt, added in some subtitles to annotate the tape, mixed in some music for dramatic effect, and posted the new version on YouTube. "My hope is that this proof on video will open some eyes to this sham," said Berry.
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Google has been sharply criticised in a report looking at the privacy policies of popular net firms.
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(InfoWorld) - An attorney hired by Hewlett-Packard to investigate the conduct of HP and outside investigators has provided new details of his firm's investigation ofÂ news leaks from the HP board. Mike Holston, a partner in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius was hired Sept. 8 to conduct an independent investigation of the scandal and reports directly to HP Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd. Morgan Lewis has reviewed some of the approximately 1 million pages of documents it received from HP and outside investigators hired by HP to trace the news leaks. It determined that HP Board Chairman Patricia Dunn authorized two separate investigations: one to probe leaks in 2005 and a second in 2006. The Morgan Lewis probe found that HP hired in 2005 Security Outsourcing Services (SOS), of Needham, Massachusetts, a private security firm, to probe the first series of leaks. This is the first official confirmation that HP hired that firm, even though it had been identified in several recent news stories. Two months into SOS's probe, HP's Global Security division also joined the investigation. The investigation concluded in July 2005 without being able to identify the source of those leaks. When CNet NetworksÂ reported Jan 23, 2006, on the details of a private board meeting, HP launched a second investigation with the help of SOS and HP Global Security. Dunn, Hurd, HP's General Counsel Ann Baskins, and Jim Fairbaugh, chief of Global Security, approved the second investigation. Dunn and Baskins were kept up to date on the course of the investigation over the next three months, Holston said. "It is now clear that the investigation included tactics that ranged from the review of HPâs internal e-mails and instant messages, to the physical surveillance of an HP Board member and at least one journalist, to the "pretexting" of telephone call information of board members, HP employees, and journalists," he said, adding that SOS's legal counsel informed HP that SOS's investigative techniques were legal. The investigators presented a draft report to HP in March 2006 identifying the source of the board leaks and detailing some of their investigative methods, including pretexting, which is obtaining access to private phone records under false pretenses. HP sent a copy of the report to its outside legal counsel and the report was disclosed at a May 18 board meeting. In a separate HP filing Sept. 6 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed that director George Keyworth was the source. While he acknowledged his role, Keyworth refused to resign at that May board meeting. HeÂ eventually resignedÂ Sept. 12. Holston went on to say that Tony Gentilucci, another member of HP's Global Security division and a member of the investigative team, turned over the Social Security number of an HP employee to SOS. SOS then turned that and other Social Security numbers over to Action Research Group, another private investigative firm, which used the numbers to help gain unauthorized access to private phone records. This is also the first acknowledgement that Action Research, of Melbourne, Florida, was involved, although it had been identified in news reports. Disclosing personal employee information is a violation of HP policy, and could result in Mr. Gentilucci's dismissal, said a source inside the company who declined to be identified. Holston also disclosed that investigators attempted to send an e-mail to a CNet reporter from a fictitious disgruntled HP employee that contained a hidden attachment, called a "tracer," that would track who the reporter contacted about the tip so as to identify her sources. HP did not disclose the identity of the reporter Friday, but she was identified in a Sept. 21 Washington Post article as Dawn Kawamoto. But Holston said it could not be determined whether the tracer was ever activated. Hurd acknowledged in his remarks that heÂ approved the fake e-mail schemeÂ but said he did not know it involved use of the tracer. And although another scheme to send spies into the San Francisco offices of CNet and The Wall Street Journal posing as clerical or janitorial workers was considered, there was no indication it was ever carried out, Holston said.
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The chief executive of media giant Viacom expressed reservations Thursday about Google's plan to enter YouTube content into a database and give owners the chance to take down the material.Viacom is suing Google for $1 billion over content being used on Google's YouTube Web property without permission. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit event San Francisco, Viacom President/CEO Phillipe Dauman expressed a willingness to work with online media properties but was skeptical of the Google plan, called Video Identification.Dauman said he had an open mind about reaching an agreement and that the announcement of Video Identification was a positive evolution. But it is not enough."I don't think we're quite there" said Dauman. Google, he said, can do things quickly if it wants to, he added. "I guess they haven't wanted to at this point," Dauman said.Google wants a proprietary system that benefits just one company, but the solution has to be a cooperative effort, said Dauman. He added he suspects Viacom at some point in the future will work with Google. The company does have a good relationship with Facebook, he said.Viacom has had its defenders, according to Dauman. "A lot of the technology companies out there welcome what we do," he said. Companies have said it was about time somebody took a stand, Dauman added.Like Google, Viacom has to protect its intellectual property. "I don't see their algorithms being shared openly with competitors," said Dauman."We took a step reluctantly because we had to," he said.Content producers need to be rewarded for what they do, Dauman said. "That nurtures creativity," he said.Viacom was part of a group of media and technology companies, along with vendors like CBS and Microsoft, that detailed Thursday principles intended to enable growth and development of user-generated content online while respecting intellectual property rights.Featured in these principles is implementation of filtering technology to eliminate infringing content; upgrading of technology and cooperation in technology implementation, and development of procedures to address claims that content was blocked in error. Removal of content also is addressed.Google was not a party to Thursday's announcement.
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SUN VALLEY, Idaho  - Google Inc.  took a  swipe at media conglomerate Viacom Inc. , which is suing  the Internet search leader and its video sharing site YouTube  for $1 billion over "massive copyright infringement."
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U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras is consulting with the agency's ethics officer to see if she should recuse herself from a review of Google's planned acquisition of online ad network DoubleClick.
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Google posts new videos on YouTube explaining its privacy settings in products as part of a privacy offensive.
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California's attorney general has   launched an inquiry into methods used by Hewlett-Packard Co.   HPQ.N to investigate boardroom leaks dating back to 2005, the   computer maker said on Wednesday.