Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Street View in Switzerland
Friday, November 13, 2009
Today we have learned that Swiss Data Protection Authority intends to take Google to court over Street View in Switzerland. We are disappointed. Data Protection Commissioner Herr Thuer has taken this move despite our efforts to provide a comprehensive set of solutions to his concerns.
We want to take this opportunity to outline the situation to date and to explain why we believe his legal action is unnecessary.
Before the launch in Switzerland, we made sure we spoke to privacy regulators and other interested groups to give them an opportunity to ask questions and raise any concerns they might have. We always do this before a launch because we know that different countries may have different expectations.
So we were pleased when the Swiss DPA gave us the green light to launch the product, confirming our understanding that Street View is legal under Swiss law. This pleasure turned to disappointment, however, when Herr Thuer changed his mind a few days after launch and sought to stop users from being able to enjoy exploring Swiss towns and cities on their computers.
We're proud of the blurring technology we've developed for Street View, and are confident the product is completely legal, but we wanted to go the extra mile to address Herr Thuer's concerns.
We proposed five concrete measures:
1. Improved license plate blurring. Swiss license plates are unique compared to other nearby countries - smaller and therefore harder to identify. So our engineers are focusing attention on our technology to deal better with these unique characteristics, and to improve the blurring of license plates in Switzerland.
2. Improved face blurring. A new version of our software for recognising and blurring faces has recently been released. We are fast tracking this upgrade into the Swiss product. Blurring technology has already reached a high standard--and with these improvements it should get even better.
3. Interest group dialogue. Aside from the DPA, we are willing to consult with other interested groups such as abortion clinics and women's refuges to hear their feedback and to answer any questions.
4. Monitoring sensitive areas. There are certain areas of a city that are particularly sensitive, and which could cause embarrassment to individuals photographed there. This is an issue we'll continue to take into account to ensure maximum user privacy.
5. Informing the public of Street View driving. One of the challenges we face with Street View is how best to let people know when our cars will be in their area. Bad weather, changes in traffic and other unplanned events often result in last minute changes of driving locations. However, we are working to provide more accurate information about where our cars are driving. You can currently track our progress
here
.
We are confident that the measures we have put in place are delivering improvements in both license plate and face blurring. And, as always, people who spot an image we might have missed can use the "report a problem" tool to let us know. These requests are dealt with quickly, usually within hours. Questions of data protection and privacy must be taken seriously, which is why we've put great effort into building sophisticated, easy to use tools for users. We believe that Street View offers a comprehensive set of protections for user privacy, and we continue to work on improving these tools. We are disappointed that Herr Thuer has changed his position on Street View after launch, and that he has not considered sufficient our proposals for improvements to the product.
We will vigorously defend Street View in court and we're committed to continue bringing the benefits to Swiss users.
Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel
Catching up with the consumer
Thursday, November 12, 2009
In the beautiful medieval town of Visby on the Swedish Island of Gotland, the
Swedish EU Presidency
this week gathered a couple of hundred of telecoms policy makers and stakeholders to discuss the future of European Information Communication & Technology policy. (Highlights are available on the Twitter feed for
#visbyagenda
). We've written before in this blog about the
buzz
in EU policy circles about technology, and the debate over Europe's high tech future is heating up as Member States begin to propose their candidate Commissioners and the gossip turns to President Barroso's allocation of portfolios.
I had the pleasure of joining Esko Aho (Nokia's EVP for Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations and Responsibility, Chairman of the
Aho group on Innovation
and former Prime Minister of Finland) on a panel entitled "Business Perspectives". Although advertising is not usually considered part of the tech agenda, it is the primary source of financing for much of what we enjoy online today. Given the emphasis in Brussels on establishing a
Digital Single Market
, targeted advertising is a crucial ingredient in creating a viable, sustainable online market.
Many delegates mentioned to me afterwards that they had been surprised by this chart that I displayed:
It shows how consumers have switched to the Internet for around 30% of their media consumption, while advertisers have redirected a far more modest share of their budget in the same direction (Sources:
ZenithOptimedia
& Jupiter). This should change in the coming years. In a recent speech in Venice, advertising leader Sir Martin Sorrel suggested that
advertising share should naturally converge towards audience share
over the next five years. With ZenithOptimedia estimating the total 2008 advertising market in western Europe to be worth just under €80 billion, that's an opportunity for online publishers in all their guises to win around €15 billion in future business!
This coming online ad boom should benefit business, content providers and consumers. Major rights holders (as well as long tail publishers) will obtain additional scope to monetise their content, while consumers will receive easier access to content that they have long sought. Telecoms operators have much to gain: extra content drives adoption of faster Internet connections. Of course, consumers must trust the online ad industry if it is to achieve its promise. That's why we have launched two important products this year:
Google's Ads Preference Manager
, and
Dashboard
. Both are designed to give users access to and control over data collected by Google.
Posted by Simon Hampton, Director of Public Policy
P.S. If you haven't seen Hans Rosling's legendary presentations using the Gapminder technology, take a look at
what he said in Visby
.
A Party in Brussels
Thursday, November 5, 2009
As Europe turns it eye to the future, we at Google EU were able to share the excitement by celebrating the opening of our new office ('Googleplex' in the jargon).
Here are some photos from the event. Until now, our small policy team in Brussels worked from temporary abodes. From now on, you can find us on the Chaussée d'Etterbeek / Etterbeeksesteenweg, right in the heart of the European quarter.
The new office sports typical, colourful Google touches - from the bright coloured furniture to game consoles and Babyfoot game. Hopefully, some of our readers will get a chance to visit us here as we plan to be holding regular Tech Talks. We hope to make our new Brussels Googleplex a periscope for policymakers peering into the future of the Internet.
Posted by Simon Hampton, Director of European Policy and Public Affairs
Secure in the Cloud
Monday, November 2, 2009
As computing moves out of the desktop and onto the Internet, worries about security have mounted. If you store data in another company's servers, in the cloud so-to-speak, how can you be confident that it is safe? Earlier this autum, I completed a a tour in Europe, including stops in Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and the UK, and will soon travel to Spain and Holland to explain the counter-intuitive notion that data actually can be much more secure in the cloud than on the desktop.
Cloud computing
, when IT software and services are delivered over the web and through a browser, is a paradigm shift, similar to taking your jewellery out of your sock drawer and placing it in the bank. The bank has the economies of scale. It has guards, robust safes, video surveillance — much more than any security investment you can deploy yourself. The same is true with data. Cloud providers such as Google are equipped to protect millions of users' data every day. As a customer you get to enjoy these economies of scale at minimal expense. We have over 1000 people dedicated to Google Enterprise, including some of the world's best security experts who are helping to make sure that your data stays safe.
It's enough to look at newspaper headlines any day of the week and read about lost data. Data on USB keys, lost or stolen laptops, MP3 players, etc. A report released last year by Credant Technologies found that London taxi passengers left more than 60,000 hand-held devices in the back of black cabs over a period of six months in 2008. Some 55,843 mobile phones and 6,193 other devices, such as laptops, were forgotten.
Businesses dedicate a lot of time and resources to protecting their data. So what goes wrong? As reported by the IT Policy Compliance Group last year, human error accounts for three quarters of all incidents involving the loss of sensitive data. When I was a Chief Information Security Officer for a major financial services company, I used to tell my team, "make it easy for users to do the right thing and they usually do." Employees are generally not malicious — they want to work from home as part of getting their work done. Indeed, today's young employees consider working 9 to 5 and always at the same desk increasingly alien. Allow them to access data anytime and anywhere, while it is still stored and protected in the cloud, and you automatically eliminate many data loss risks. In fact, this blog was drafted in my office back in California, edited in my hotel in Europe on a different PC, shared with my colleagues, and now posted from a colleague's laptop. At no point was it emailed, downloaded to my desktop or put on USB stick. It was all done in the cloud and protected by the cloud.
The cloud offers several other important security advantages. Most organizations take 30-60 days to install security patches on their systems which is a major concern in its own right. In fact, many companies I talk to admit it's closer to 3-6 months to install a security patch. This means that traditional IT systems and applications are open to known security vulnerabilities for a very long time. By contrast, we run a very homogeneous computing environment, so when it is time to patch we can do it in a rapid and uniform manner to all of our systems.
Finally, there is the question of physical security of our data centers and reliability of our products. At Google we replicate users' data to multiple data centers. If one data center goes out, our infrastructure helps ensure that the data remains secure and accessible. While in Europe, some unfortunate news helped prove my point. I was in Milan when a flood swept the country and knocked out several key data centers. Although it affected a number of local businesses, Google customers saw no disruption of service.
Admittedly, no system is 100% foolproof, or 100% secure. Back in March we had an unfortunate programmatic error that caused a Google Docs sharing problem. However, we were able to respond quickly because it happened in the cloud. The issue affected less than 0.05% of our users' documents, and it was corrected without our clients having to do anything. No software to install, no upgrades, no configuration changes, etc. And we worked closely with the affected customers to inform them how it impacted their documents.
From time to time any system will be affected by some security issues. The real question is what people, process, and technologies do you have in place to minimize the impact of these incidents, and how quickly can you respond if anything goes wrong. We designed our systems with security in mind and have a 24x7 security team looking at new threats and able to respond in a rapid manner. I'm confident that they address the sorts of concerns organizations have with their currently in-house managed systems. More than 2 million businesses have already signed up for our Google Apps suite, and this number is expanding by an additional 3,000 businesses each day.
We're convinced that the future of computing lies in the cloud. Cloud based solutions are cost efficient, collaborative, and — more often than not — more secure to operate. While in Brussels, I observed that European policymakers are taking note. At least three studies on cloud computing undertaken by the European Commission and its security agency
ENISA
are in the pipeline, and we also talked about ways to demonstrate to professional and personal users alike how we respect our users' security and privacy. Instead of seeing security as a negative factor weighing down the transition to cloud computing, I hope I helped explain why it should be perceived as a benefit.
Posted by Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security for Google Apps
Celebrating free expression 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Friday, October 23, 2009
(Cross-posted from the
YouTube Blog
)
In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall became a striking symbol for free expression far beyond the borders of Germany. Just 20 years later, Iranian citizens used online tools like YouTube and Twitter to share
firsthand accounts
of the brutal government crackdown waged against protesters disputing the country's election results.
Many Iranians risked their lives
to document the violence, despite the government's attempts to expel journalists and stifle any voices of dissent.
The democratizing power of the Internet has enabled individuals to share their stories with a global audience in ways never before possible, and given a voice to those who wouldn't otherwise be heard.
To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're launching a YouTube channel —
youtube.com/GoogleFreeExpression
— to highlight and celebrate free expression around the world, and we want to hear from you.
This channel is designed to feature your stories and reflections on free expression. Tell us about how you or someone you know has taken a stand for free expression. Perhaps you've
protested against
something you didn't agree with,
taken action
when someone else's free speech was being suppressed or
been inspired
by someone who has stood up for the right to speak out. Make a short video sharing your experience, upload it to YouTube, and add it as a reply to this one:
We'll be featuring the best submissions on the
Google Free Expression channel
, so be sure to check back in the weeks to come. We look forward to hearing from you.
Posted by Annette Kroeber-Riel, Senior European Policy Counsel
You Ain't Seen Nothing Net
Friday, October 16, 2009
Brussels, home to the 27-nation European Union, is a linguistic melting pot. The European Union itself has 22 official languages. So when our Vice President for Research and Special Initiatives, Alfred Spector, visited this week, he opened this linguistic window to outline his vision of the future of the Internet. Three years ago, he noted that Google only offered translation in nine languages. We now support 51 languages. Recently, specially excited to announce that we've added additional languages to Google Translate:
Afrikaans
,
Belarusian
,
Icelandic
,
Irish
,
Macedonian
,
Maltese
,
Welsh
, and
Yiddish
. Since we can translate between any two of these languages, we offer translation for 2550 language pairs!
Are the translations perfect? Would they substitute for an official translation of a European directive? No, Alfred acknowledged. For example, our programs may get translate "le garcon" as "boy" when the correct word should be "waiter." So, as Alfred explained, please don't get mad if "Garcon, apporte-moi un cafe" becomes "Boy, bring me a coffee" instead of "Waiter, bring me a coffee." (Although, we're proud to say that if we add an exclamation point after the word "Garcon," the translation would be perfect!) But the translations are improving regularly and can help you
find and translate
local restaurant and hotel reviews into your language when planning a vacation abroad, allow you to read the
Spanish
or
French Editions of Google News
, communicate with people who speak different languages using
Google Translate chat bots
, and more.
Our growing linguistic dexterity shows how Google is investing in the future of the web, and how we believe technological advances will continue to make the web better and more useful to people. "We will break down communication barriers," Alfred explained. In a growing number of cases, People who speak only "small" languages will gain much greater access to the the Web's wonders. And speakers in one language can search for information in other languages and then have this results translated. "The barriers to information exchange" are being disappearing very rapidly, Alfred argued. (Type "Translated Search" to Google to see this capability.)
Translation is another tool that relies on the power of data. Our translation tools are built by comparing existing translations that exist on the web, and we also solicit feedback from users. No human interference is required to conduct a translation. In related fields, Alfred explained how we are working on voice recognition and demonstrated how it has become possible to do searches just by speaking into one's mobile phone. While the capabilities are in various dialects of English now, watch for more... In response to questions, Alfred noted these advances cannot pose privacy concerns - training data collected is anonymous and then aggregated into statistically applied recognition rules -- it is therefore completely untraceable to any individual. Both the use of speech to search from mobile phones and translation are but two examples of many Alfred gave as to how the web will continue to breakdown barriers to communication and understanding.
In Brussels, Alfred also gave the keynote speech at a conference titled
The Future of Space in Europe
. He noted how Google and organisations such as the European Space Agency have much more in common than it may first appear. We are both in the business of setting audacious goals and working over a long time-frame to make them a reality. In both our fields, you cannot possibly anticipate all the challenges you will face, nor predict the innovations engineers will make to overcome them. But one thing is clear: having a bold vision guarantees that huge progress will be made along the way. As they say - "aim for the moon, then even if you miss at least you'll reach the stars"... In our field, we say something similar for how the Internet is allowing us to explore knowledge in surprising, exciting ways- "you ain't seen nothing net."
Posted by Bill Echikson, Senior Communications Manager
Flu Trends Comes To Europe
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog
If you're like us, you're probably thinking a lot about how this year's flu season might affect you and your community. To help you out, we at
Google.org
are excited to announce the expansion of Google
Flu Trends
to 16 additional countries, including much of Europe. We've also made the site available in 37 languages. Flu is a global threat, affecting millions worldwide each year, so we're pleased to make this tool available in more regions and languages.
Last November
, we launched Google Flu Trends in the United States after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time. While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season.
In the past year, we've expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data.
An important aspect of Google Flu Trends is that we filter out terms that may be popular because people hear about them in the news. What we do not use in the models is a term like [swine flu] since people are more likely to type that into Google because they want to know more information about it, given the news headlines, and not because they actually have H1N1 or swine flu. For more information about how we built this model, take a peek at this video:
If you visit Google Flu Trends for the U.S., you'll notice that the flu season is starting early this year. For tips on how to stay healthy this season, please visit our friends at the U.S.
CDC
and the
ECDC
.
Posted by Matt Mohebbi and Dan Vanderkam, Software Engineers
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