... restore its recently watered-down data retention laws. "Only if the investigators can trace the communication during the planning of attacks can they thwart such crimes and protect people," the spokesman told German media.

Less eager to go back to the future was Robin Lardot, Finland's Deputy National Police Commissioner: "We have enhanced network intelligence at the moment," he told local broadcaster, YLE. during an interview earlier this week. 

Meanwhile, government officials from Finland's southerly neighbour, Estonia, have argued for an expansion of specific powers, namely, the ability to quickly look up an IP address.

Despite the fact that IP addresses can easily be faked, law enforcement agencies still use them as a means to trace criminal activity.

However, many internet activists are concerned that politicians will use this opportunity as a way to erode existing online freedoms.

"Whatever the context, police and politicians feel the need to reassure people with ‘new' policies when there is such a tragedy," writes Joe McNamee, of European Digital Rights, a Brussels non-profit, in an e-mail to Deutsche Welle. 

"Often the policies would have been irrelevant to deal with the tragedy but it doesn't matter - there is a ‘reassurance vacuum' which has to be filled with something... anything, even something useless and counterproductive.

Continued McNamee: "The same vacuum exists in other countries, so - for our security (this is exactly when rushed, bad and ineffective policy is often rolled out) and fundamental rights, we can only hope that politicians act responsibly."

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... it could take another five years before the law is enforced - especially if the tobacco companies carry out their threat to legally challenge the ruling.

UK health minister Andrew Lansley believes plain packs would de-glamourize the habit and deter young people from taking up cigarette smoking.

The Tobacco Manufacturers Association, unsurprisingly, disagrees: "We do not believe any plans for plain packaging are based on sound public policy, nor any compelling evidence."

The International Advertising Association is likewise opposed to the legislation. In a letter to the EU, Erich Buxbaum, IAA  vice-president and area director for Europe, warns: "All brands are registered trademarks. This could lead into a vast legal process - companies will sue the EC. They pay a lot of money every year for their trademarks."

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

Four charges have been laid against the US search titan:

1. That it has intentionally 'hurt' competing services.
    
2. It has lowered the “quality score” for sponsored links of competing vertical search services.
    
3. It has imposed exclusivity obligations on advertisers, preventing them from placing certain types of competing advertisements on their websites.
    
4. Restrictions have been imposed on the portability of online advert campaign data to competing online advertising platforms.

Google denies that it holds a dominant position in online search despite its massive market share, and insists it will vigorously defend the four charges.

Thanks to Google's legion of lawyers and the EC's bureaucratic machinery, the investigation is expected to extend over several centuries!
 

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

Nonetheless, broadband speeds in Europe have risen sharply in only a year, suggest official EC figures.

According to EC research, in July this year 29% of broadband lines in Europe ran at speeds of at least 10 Mbps. By contrast in July 2009 only 15% of broadband lines were capable of achieving that speed.

Despite the higher rates, the Commission warned that much work is needed to meet Europe-wide targets on access and speed.

"Fast broadband is digital oxygen, essential for Europe's prosperity and well-being," said Neelie Kroes, commissioner for the digital agenda.

Leading the European bloc in terms of high-speed broadband links a are Denmark and the Netherlands - each boasting coverage to some 80% of households.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

The draft European Commission rules - snappily titled A Comprehensive Approach on Personal Data Protection in the European Union - imply the imposition of an online "right to be forgotten."

Such a dispensation would confer on EU citizens a legal right to demand that websites permanently delete already submitted personal data. The proposed rules also mandate that users give explicit consent before companies can use or process their personal data in any way. The mercifully brief (20-page) document also condemns website operators' current privacy policies as "opaque".

States EU Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding: "The protection of personal data is a fundamental right. To guarantee this right, we need clear and consistent data-protection rules. We also need to bring our laws up to date with the challenges raised by new technologies and globalization."

The proposal recommends giving consumers the right to sue companies for privacy breaches and also proposes criminal penalties.

The Commission, the EU's executive branch, will submit the proposal as legislation next year. It will then be debated and amended by EU members and the European Parliament before becoming law.

In the interim, expect frenzied lobbying from all interested parties - plus loud howls of transatlantic indignation!

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

The concordat may take a similar direction to moves in the US, where an icon on online ads tells users why they’re seeing them and how to opt out, under the CLEAR specifications released by the IAB and partner the Network Advertising Initiative.

According to IAB head of regulatory affairs Nick Stringer: "A pan-European website will be a starting point, giving more consumer control. 'Your Online Choices' will play an important role in letting consumers see where and why they get a cookie. We’re trying to get more companies to participate and sign up to the Good Practice Principles."

EU data protection regulators are reportedly arguing that current cookie usage does not meet the requirements of the ePrivacy directive due to come into force next year - this calls for ‘informed consent’ which means browsers set by default to reject cookies require users to go into the privacy settings and change their selection in order to accept an ad cookie.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... in that last week's vote by MEPs is unlikely to lead to new food labels before three to five years have elapsed.

In the meantime, the new rules "make it clear that [the EU] won't stand for people being misled by food packaging". Key nutritional information, including salt, fat and sugar content, will have to be displayed on the front of the pack.

Country of origin is another area where MEPs and the European Commission feel that food labels can be misleading. They cite, for instance, Danish bacon, which is sometimes labelled "UK produce" even though the pigs were reared in Denmark.

Arguments are raging over how much information to give consumers on pack fronts. Food industry lobbyists fear an excessive administrative burden.

Legibility is also a key issue, with the EC proposing a minimum 3-millimetre font size for pack labelling.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

Commissioner Schaar is unconvinced by Google's claim that the collection of data was an accident, describing the incident as “highly unusual”.

Continued Schaar: “One of the largest companies in the world, the market leader on the internet, simply disobeyed normal rules in the development and usage of software.”

Marc Rotenberg, leader of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington DC is of like mind. “It is unprecedented vacuuming of WiFi data by a private company. Can you imagine what would happen if a German corporation was sending cars through Washington sucking up all this information?”

In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office said that Google appeared to have breached the Data Protection Act.

Hands aloft in pious innocence, the Mountain View colossus claimed it it had been using a fleet of camera-equipped Street View vehicles, which photograph the group’s imaging services, and had been at the same time using the cars to assemble a database of electronic WiFi addresses intended to improve the functioning of its maps and other location services.

It goes without saying, of course, that this monumental goof wasn't the responsibility of Google's Top Brass. Nosirree, the fault lay down the line, pinned well and truly on the minions!

The project leaders, it seems, overlooked that the vehicles were also recording snippets of activity on adjacent WiFi networks.

“We didn’t want to collect this data in the first place and we would like to destroy it as soon as possible,” said Google’s abject PR hack Peter Barron. The data in question had never been available to outsiders, he insisted.

It is unlikely his explanation will satisfy privacy authorities on either side of the Atlantic and a prolonged investigation seems inevitable. Probably followed by legislation.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... a new EU-sponsored  agency to rate the credit standing of member governments. This would challenge the global muscle of the global credit rating triopoly which, say critics, is so powerful that its judgements become self-fulfilling prophecies.

According to these critics, a downgrade by one or all the Big Three can push fund managers either into selling government bonds, or refusing to buy newly issued bonds.

Such negative gradings depress the value of the bonds and raise future borrowing costs - a sequence of events that puts further strain on a government's finances and could - theoretically - lead to further downgrades.

It's precisely that kind of vicious circle Greece has been fighting in recent months - a syndrome that irks M. Barmnier and his fellow officials in Brussels.

Accordingly the Eurocrats are considering how best to exercise their power to control the activities of  the rating agencies.

In 2009 the Triad was accused of failing to assess the size and risk of the US housing market's bad debt  - debt that was subsequently repackaged and resold around the world, triggering multi-billion pound losses.

The threesome later admitted their assessment of securities backed by sub-prime mortgages was incorrect. And how!
 

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

Vodafone last week formally launched a recording service for clients in Western Europe following year-long trials with selected financial services clients. The Orange network launched a kindred service earlier this month.

Both services utilize an application on the handset that channels all inbound and outbound mobile calls via a central server, which records and stores all voice and keystroke content.

The devices are designed to comply with expected new Financial Services Authority regulations which would require banks and other financial operations to record all mobile communications relating to sales orders and transaction negotiations.

The requirement already applies to such communications on fixed lines and recordings must be retained for six months. The FSA is now considering extending the requirement to cellphones, strating from the end of 2010 followed by a twelve months transition period.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.