Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Paris names Google its Foreign Investor of the Year
Monday, February 13, 2012
Over the past few years, we have made extensive investments in France, recognizing how the country’s Internet economy is booming. Our Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt recently
inaugurated
, in the presence of President Nicolas Sarkozy, a new 10,000-square meter office in a refurbished
19th century Second Empire building
near the St. Lazare Train Station.
In recognition of these moves, the
Greater Paris Investment Agency
this month awarded Google its prize of the international investor of the year. Valérie Pécresse, Minister for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform presented the prize to Susan Pointer, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations, Southern & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Our efforts in France go far beyond new buildings. We’re encouraging French start-ups by creating a
Startup Café
, an online platform offering information and tools required by entrepreneurs to launch a business. We’re investing in French startups, creating a platform for content and tools.expanding our engineering presence to take advantage of France’s strong engineering talent pool and are making significant academic investments, including a partnership with the French national research center
CNRS
and the creation of a
Google Chair at HEC
.
The new Paris headquarters houses a cultural institute which aims to leverage digital technologies to expand access to cultural treasures around the world. Last year, the number of Googlers in France has doubled to nearly 400 employees, and we are continuing to hire. In the future, more and more products will Google "made in France"!
All of this is just the beginning of what we are sure will be a long love affair with France and its capital.
Posted by Elisabeth Bargès, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google France
Working with Le Monde to aid Tunisian journalism
Friday, February 10, 2012
Update,
February 16
. Google France welcomed five of the six Tunisian journalists at its offices for a lunch to hear about their experiences in Paris and to discuss progress of freedom of expression in their homeland.
In a single, magnificent moment, journalists in Tunisia liberated themselves from the shackles of censorship. They no longer were forced to regurgitate government propaganda and finally could write what they wanted. Instead, they were confronted with the challenges of freedom.
We are teaming up with the prestigious French newspaper
Le Monde
to help tackle this crucial challenge. Six Tunisian journalists are coming to Paris to work for three months in the Le Monde newsroom. As the
paper explained
, the journalists will help cover daily news and the upcoming French Presidential election. Our hope is that they then will return home with new skills that will serve to construct a new, free but responsible professional press in Tunisia.
The six winners of the Google internship are:
Radhouane Somai, a political reporter for the Business News website.
Hajer Ben Arjroudi, an an investigative reporter for the Express FM radio station.
Thameur Mekki contributes to three online webzines, specializing in digital culture.
Zbiss Hanene, the editor of the culture section for Realities magazine.
Hajer Jeridi, the editor-in-chief of the www.gnet.tn news site.
Nacer Talel, a freelance photographer
At Google, we are aware of the need to work with publishers to smooth the transition not only from oppression to freedom, but from analogue to digital distribution. We are sponsoring a series of digital journalism prizes with
Institut de Sciences Politiques
, the
International Press Institute
in Vienna and the
Global Editors Network
in Paris. We also are the proud backer of Reporters Without Borders’ annual
Netizen of the Year
award. In addition, we have come up with a series of products such as
Adsense
to split online ad revenues with publishers.
The collaboration with Le Monde marks a significant step forward in our engagement. We are working hard to support free elections in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, building a series of new Internet tools that allow politicians to reach voters and voters to have their voice heard by politicians.
A special thanks goes out to Le Monde’s
Sylvie Kauffmann
for this project. Sylvie covered Central Europe for Le Monde when it the communist imposed countries of the Soviet empire freed themselves. Sylvie continued to become the Le Monde’s first female editor-in-chief. She travelled to Tunis and personally interviewed and chose all the candidates. For her, and for Le Monde, strong journalism represents a key building block for free societies.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Searching for creative young minds
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Are you between 18 and 24 years old and have done something to make an impact in the world? Do you fancy the opportunity to come to the UK and meet some of the great minds of our time?
If so, apply by March 19 to Google's youth challenge,
Zeitgeist Young Minds
, by uploading a short video telling your story, what matters to you and how you’re making a positive impact on your world. We want to find the most exceptional and inspiring young people who are helping others through science, the arts, education, leadership or innovation.
Winners will meet the leaders attending
2012 Zeitgeist
. Previous Zeitgeist speakers have included Archbishop
Desmond Tutu
, The Black Eyed Peas’
will.I.am
, Burberry CEO
Angela Ahrendts
, and Google CEO
Larry Page
.
The inaugural ‘Young Minds’ competition rewarded a series of pathbreakers, ranging from a student who launched free hip-hop dance classes for high-risk youth to a South African AIDS activist to a student who founded an organization offering IT education. A full list of last year's winning projects are found
here
.
Events agency
Livity
is managing the contest and will pick the winners. Zeitgeist Young Minds is open to all young people ages 18-24 who are residents of South Africa, Algeria, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Egypt, Spain, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Russia , Sweden, Tunisia, and Yemen.
Posted by Elizabeth Dupuy, Event Manager, External Relations
Supporting safety online
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Telefono Azzurro
, one of Italy’s main child protection NGOs, does amazing work on behalf of missing and sexually exploited children and their families. Last year, we donated a
Google Search Appliance
- essentially the Google ‘search engine in a box’ - to improve information retrieval on their internal network and make it easier to search on their public website.
Today, on
Safer Internet Day 2012
, we’re happy to announce that this collaboration is expanding. Telefono Azzuro will share its Search Appliance with all of the members of
Missing Children Europe
(MCE), the federation of national NGOs responsible for the
European 116.000 phone hotline
, who will use Google's search technology on their public websites. Eventually, the Search Appliance will also be linked to MCE’s interconnected
European database
of missing children (currently under construction), enabling
each member NGO
to better organise its own case files and conduct secure searches on its internal network.
This is just one example of how seriously we take the challenge of increasing safety on the web, but on Safer Internet Day, we’re also involved in a whole host of initiatives all over Europe, including:
Digital literacy education / workshops
Italy
: we’re running online safety workshops with Telefono Azzurro /
Sicuri in Rete
and with the Italian
Postal and Communications Police
(at more than 100 schools); and we’re distributing online safety information to parents together with the Italian
Association of Paediatricians
.
Portugal
: we’re launching the
Google Family Safety Center
at an event chaired by the President of National Commission for Support for Children.
Russia
: We’re partnering with
Net Literacy
to engage over 200 Russian journalism students in digital literacy campaigning in schools and communities
Events
UK
: we’re hosting online safety events with
CEOP
, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, and
Raceonline
; we’re also participating in workshops organised by the UK
Safer Internet Centre
.
Russia
: we’re working with the
Russia Safe Internet Centre
and
Russian Association of Electronic Communications
to run a series of international expert panels at the Safer Internet Forum.
Germany
: Wieland Holfelder, Google Engineering Director, is keynoting a session on the platform for safe internet use at the Safer Internet Event in Germany, organized by
Bitkom
and the Ministry of Consumer Protection (
BMELV
).
Research
UK
: we're launching, together with
YAW-CRC
, new research funded by Google into how parents can
keep their families safe online
, and
become more digitally literate themselves
.
Technology
France
: we’re supporting the work of
e-Enfance.org
on a new Google Chrome browser extension called
NetEcoute
, which will make it easy for youngsters to start an online discussion with a helpline counselor.
These initiatives are part of our global outreach on Safer Internet Day - but we hope that each of them will - in their own way - be a step forward for online safety education.
Posted by Laura Bononcini, Senior Policy Analyst, Google
More information on our privacy policy changes
Friday, February 3, 2012
Update, Tuesday 28 February, 14:30 CET
: Today we received a letter from the CNIL, and we have responded with
this letter
.
Update, Friday 20 April, 14:15 CEST
: We have now responded to all the
questions from the CNIL
with
this letter
and
this appendix
.
Update, Thursday 21 June, 14:35 CEST
: We have responded to the second set of questions from the CNIL with
this letter
.
Last night we received a letter from the Jacob Kohnstamm, Chairman of the Europe's Article 29 Working Party, asking for additional information about the changes to our privacy policy.
We briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks leading up to our announcement. None of them expressed substantial concerns at the time, but of course we're happy to speak with any data protection authority that has questions.
We have responded to Mr Kohnstamm with further information, which you can read
here
.
As we’ve said several times over the past week, while our privacy policies will change on 1st March, our commitment to our
privacy principles
is as strong as ever.
Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel
German Office of Information Security recommends Chrome
Friday, February 3, 2012
Last month, we published the
core principles
around Chrome security. This included commitments such as working with the internet community to help increase security for all web browsers, and continuing to design Chrome to offer multiple layers of defence against cyber attacks.
Today, we’re honoured that the
BSI
, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, has highlighted several of Chrome’s
security features
in a
best-practice guide
for Windows users. The report is part of the BSI’s ongoing efforts to improve cyber security.
According to the report, the browser is the central component for accessing any online service on the web, and a common entry point for cyber attacks. In order to reduce the risk, the BSI recommends that users install a browser with
sandbox technology
.
“The browser that currently most consistently implements this protection is
Google Chrome
,” the report states. “Comparable mechanisms in other browsers are either weaker, or non-existent. By using Google Chrome...you can significantly reduce the risk of a successful IT attack.”
In addition to Chrome’s sandbox, the guide also points to the importance of Chrome’s auto-update feature.
“Equally positive is the auto-update functionality of Google Chrome, which includes a bundled version of the Adobe Flash Player,” the report continues. “By bundling it with Chrome, the Adobe Flash Player will also always be kept up to date.”
We hope our efforts to improve the
security
and
privacy
of our users continue to help make the web a better place.
Posted by Dr. Wieland Holfelder, Engineering Director Google Germany, and Travis McCoy, Chrome Security Team
Mind the Gap: Encouraging women to study engineering
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Women make up more than half the global population, but hold fewer than a third of the world’s engineering jobs. In the U.S., female students comprise fewer than 15 percent of all Advanced Placement computer science test takers. Even in high-tech Israel, few girls choose computer science. Not only is this a loss to companies like Google and everyone who benefits from a continually developing web; it's also a lost opportunity for girls.
Beginning in 2008, a group of female engineers at Google in Israel decided to tackle this problem. We established the “Mind the Gap!” program, aimed at encouraging girls to pursue math, science and technology education. In collaboration with the
Israeli National Center for Computer Science Teachers
, we began organizing monthly school visits for different groups of girls to the
Google office
and annual tech conferences at local universities and institutes. The girls learn about computer science and technology and get excited about its applications, as well as have a chance to talk with female engineers in an informal setting and see what the working environment is like for them.
Since we started this program over three years ago, we’ve hosted more than 1,100 teenage girls at our office, and an additional 1,400 girls at three annual conferences held in leading universities. These 2,500 students represent 100 schools from all sectors and from all over the country: Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tira, Beer-Sheva, Jerusalem, Nazareth and more; what they have in common is the potential to become great computer scientists.
The
results
are encouraging. For instance, some 40 percent of the girls who participated in last year’s conference later chose computer science as a high school major.
We encourage people in other countries, at other companies and in other scientific disciplines to see how they could replicate this program. You can read more at the project
site
. Currently, we are working with the
Google in Education
group to expand the program to more offices globally and get even more young women excited about computer science. The difference we can make is real: At one of our first visits three years ago, we met a 10th grade student named Keren who enjoyed math but had never considered computer science as a high school major. Last month, Keren informed us that the visit made such an impact on her, she decided to change her major to computer science. “Talking to women in the field helped me change my mind,” she said.
Posted by Michal Segalov, Software Engineer at Google’s R&D Center, Israel
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