gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » data protection http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:07:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Germany.gov calls for Data Protection Codehttp://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/20/germany-gov-calls-for-data-protection-code/ http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/20/germany-gov-calls-for-data-protection-code/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:41:32 +0000 Mike Halsey MVP http://www.ghacks.net/?p=34853 Germany is the largest country in Europe where Google’s controversial Street View has not gone live.  This is because of privacy complaints made about the service around the world.  Now the German government has called for a voluntary data protection code to be in place by 7th December this year, as reported by the BBC.

The announcement follows a meeting with Google, Apple and other companies to discuss how personal data can be accessed online and at a time when mainstream German newspaper Der Spiegel has reported several hundred thousand people have opted out of the Street View service.

The German Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizeire, said in a statement that the code would enable users to obtain information on the gathering and intended usage of data “in a user-friendly way”.

Google Street View allows people to use the Google Maps service to “walk through” streets around the world and while in some countries people have had car licence plates and faces obscured, the people of Germany will be able to have entire houses removed before the service launches in the country.

Germany has some of the toughest privacy laws in Europe and even a centralised agency responsible for overseeing privacy and data collection legislation with a data commissioner for every state in the country.

This has all come about after Google admitted “erroneously” collecting data from unsecured wi-fi networks in over 30 countries using it’s Street View vans.  Several countries including France, Germany and Australia are still investigating the affair and in the US, Google is facing a class action lawsuit backed by 38 states.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/20/germany-gov-calls-for-data-protection-code/feed/ 4 The Brits Surely Know How To Spread Confidential Datahttp://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/30/the-brits-surely-know-how-to-spread-confidential-data/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/30/the-brits-surely-know-how-to-spread-confidential-data/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:56:26 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7320 Living in the United Kingdom surely has its bright sides, you got the IT Crowd, Cider and James Bond. On the downside British government officials have been known for their lax data privacy behavior. More than one incident came to light where data of millions of British citizens landed in the wrong hands.

James Bond on the other hand would be ashamed of the most recent incident. A 28-year old delivery men thought that he made the bargain of his life by purchasing a Nikon Coolpix camera for roughly $30 on eBay.

Imagine his surprised look when he found out that the camera was filled to the brim with top secret information from Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. According to Techcrunch the camera was filled with information about “al-Qaeda cells, names, images of suspected terrorists and weapons, fingerprint information, and log-in details for the Secret Service’s computer network, containing a “Top Secret” marking”.

This incident leads to two conclusions: Even if politicians claim that there will be no data privacy leaks they can and will happen. The second is that it will happen again. One only wonders how many hard drives and other storage devices have been sold with sensitive information on them.

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