Web search for bomb recipes should be blocked: EU
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Internet searches for bomb-making  instructions should be blocked across the European Union, the  bloc&#39;s top security official said on Monday.
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A 20-year-old Estonian student has been fined for participating in&#160;a cyberattack that paralyzed Estonian Web sites&#160;and&#160;soured the country&#39;s relationship with Russia, a government official said Thursday.Dmitri Galushkevich used his home PC to launched a denial-of-service attack that knocked down the Web site for the political party of Estonia&#39;s prime minister for several days, said Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman for the Northeast District Prosecutor&#39;s Office in Tallinn, Estonia&#39;s capital. Galushkevich must pay 17,500 kroons ($1,642).Galushkevich is the only person who has been convicted since the cyberattack in April and May 2007 crippled the Web sites of banks, schools, and government agencies.The attacks occurred after the Estonian government decided to relocate a Soviet-era World War II memorial of a bronze soldier. Ethnic Russians in Estonia rioted in the streets, and cyberattacks ensued. Russia denied involvement.&quot;He [Galushkevich] wanted to show that he was against the removal of this bronze statue,&quot; Maesalu. &quot;At the moment, we don&#39;t have any other suspects.&quot;But police are still trying to find others who may have been involved in the attacks, although the investigation is complicated since the attackers are likely outside Estonia, Maesalu said.As the attacks were continuing, Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo called for stronger defenses in Europe against computer hackers.&#160;
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Google will tell Brussels it needs to hold on to users' search data for up to two years for security and commercial reasons after being warned it could be violating European privacy laws by doing so.
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The recording industry is seeking legislation in Europe that would require the filtering of Internet connections to block the illicit transfer of copyrighted material and more.
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An independent European Union panel has launched an investigation into whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules
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They are asking the European Union Council to reject this proposal. They claim that software patent directive would be harmful to the European economy.
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Blog: Financial Times reports Yahoo, Microsoft to reveal Web search data retention policies at urging of European Union group.
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At a hearing Monday, a top European regulator said that Internet Protocol addresses should be treated as personal information, something Google and other sites have resisted.
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An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States.
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Data protection officials from 27 European countries have warned Google it is storing data on people&#39;s searches for too long-- but Europe&#39;s top privacy guardian, the European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx, believes Google&#39;s efforts to respect the privacy of European citizens in its Internet search software &quot;is not just window dressing.&quot;
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Internet users in Britain who illegally download films and music face being banned from going online, according to leaked government proposals published in The Times on Tuesday.
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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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Â· Internet industry asked to help curb illegal materialÂ· Terror bill proposes new powers against suspects
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The European Union investigates whether saving search data violates privacy laws.
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The European Union head office called for closer coordination Monday among all member governments to hunt down and prosecute those illegally spreading unsolicited e-mails across the 25-nation bloc.
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Calls it child porn Finnish police are blocking more than 1,000 legal websites, including one belonging to a well-known internet activist, under a secretive system designed to prevent access to foreign sites that contain child pornography, according to a group that advocates for individual rights online.â¦
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By Stephen Castle  One of Google's most popular services came under threat yesterday when a court banned the search engine from reproducing articles from Belgian newspapers and opened the door to similar challenges elsewhere in Europe.