Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Partnering with Le Monde to train journalism's next generation
Monday, January 28, 2013
For journalism to thrive in the Internet era, it needs people who can build on the important lessons from the world's great newspapers while embracing a new digital friendly form. Today, to help nurture this new generation of talent, we agreed to
partner
with one of the gold standards of French journalism -
Le Monde
with its
Monde Académie
.
Le Monde is opening up its newsrooms to 68 apprentice journalists aged 18 to 25. No journalism degree is required. Each day, the newspaper will publish one of their stories, or one of their photos, drawings or video. In France, Le Monde says journalism is “perceived as one of the professions most closed to young people.” Le Monde Académie aims to change that perception.
While at Le Monde, each trainee will be accompanied by a full time journalist or editor, but the trainees are allowed to pick the subjects for their stories they submit to the paper and online editions.
Blogs
follow the progression of the youngsters as they report and file their stories, as well as the difficulties they face and their attempts to become full-fledged professional journalists. At the end of the program this June, Le Monde will hire three of the youngsters.
Google is partnering in the entire process. The trainees will visit our Paris headquarters for courses in digital literacy. Specialists will demonstrate how journalists may benefit from Google products ranging from Youtube to Blogger, and Drive to Docs, both to uncover information and share it. Round tables are being organized to discuss issues facing the transition of journalism from paper to the web.
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.
This isn’t Google’s first project with Le Monde, either. We brought
six Tunisian journalists
to the paper last year to work for three months in the newsroom. Its great to see that adventure expanded to promote young French journalists.
Posted by Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce, Head of Communications, France
Google's approach to government requests for users
Monday, January 28, 2013
Cross-posted with the
Official Google Blog
Today, January 28, is Data Privacy Day, when the world recognizes the importance of preserving your online privacy and security.
If it’s like most other days, Google—like many companies that provide online services to users—will receive dozens of letters, faxes and emails from government agencies and courts around the world requesting access to our users’ private account information. Typically this happens in connection with government investigations.
It’s important for law enforcement agencies to pursue illegal activity and keep the public safe. We’re a law-abiding company, and we don’t want our services to be used in harmful ways. But it’s just as important that laws protect you against overly broad requests for your personal information.
To strike this balance, we’re focused on three initiatives that I’d like to share, so you know what Google is doing to protect your privacy and security.
First, for several years we have advocated for updating laws like the U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act, so the same protections that apply to your personal documents that you keep in your home also apply to your email and online documents. We’ll continue this effort strongly in 2013 through our membership in the
Digital Due Process coalition
and other initiatives.
Second, we’ll continue our long-standing strict process for handling these kinds of requests. When government agencies ask for our users’ personal information—like what you provide when you sign up for a Google Account, or the contents of an email—our team does several things:
We scrutinize the request carefully to make sure it satisfies the law and our policies. For us to consider complying, it generally must be made in writing, signed by an authorized official of the requesting agency and issued under an appropriate law.
We evaluate the scope of the request. If it’s overly broad, we may refuse to provide the information or seek to
narrow the request
. We do this frequently.
We notify users about legal demands when appropriate so that they can contact the entity requesting it or consult a lawyer. Sometimes we can’t, either because we’re legally prohibited (in which case we sometimes seek to lift gag orders or unseal search warrants) or we don’t have their verified contact information.
We require that government agencies conducting criminal investigations use a search warrant to compel us to provide a user’s search query information and private content stored in a Google Account—such as Gmail messages, documents, photos and YouTube videos. We believe a warrant is required by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure and overrides conflicting provisions in ECPA.
And third, we work hard to provide you with information about government requests. Today, for example, we’ve added a
new section
to our Transparency Report that answers many questions you might have. And last week we released
data
showing that government requests continue to rise, along with additional details on the U.S. legal processes—such as subpoenas, court orders and warrants—that government use to compel us to provide this information.
We’re proud of our approach, and we believe it’s the right way to make sure governments can pursue legitimate investigations while we do our best to protect your privacy and security.
Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Hanging out with women engineers at Google
Friday, January 25, 2013
One of the problems girls face when considering a career in computing is the lack of female role models. It’s hard to aspire to be what you can’t see.
To help redress this, the
CS on Air
team in partnership with
Women Techmakers
have started an informal series of hangouts with women engineers across Google.
Each tells the story of how they discovered their passion for computing, and gives advice for others considering pursuing it as a career. We learn about the kind of projects they’ve worked on and why they’ve personally found computing to be such an exciting field of study and work.
So far we’ve recorded three of these short conversations, featuring engineers from across Europe:
Beryl Nelson, Software Engineering Manager
in Krakow, Poland came late to computer science, as an extension of her Masters degree in genetic biochemistry. She’s since had a long programming career, spanning India, Japan and Poland, while also raising a family.
Mandy Waite, Developer Advocate
in London, UK studied radio and TV mechanics and transitioned to computing early in her career, creating software for printing imagery. At Google she works with startups, supporting them in using Google’s cloud platform and API’s.
Ania Marszalek, Software Engineer
in Zurich, Switzerland discovered her love of programming at high school. She now makes software tools that monitor the performance of Google Maps, allowing the team to pinpoint any areas that need improving and fix them fast.
Over the coming months we plan to continue the series and extend it to other regions, so it can be a resource for teachers, career counselors, and women everywhere considering a career in computing. Check out the
CS on Air listings
to see upcoming episodes.
Posted by Alison Cutler, Pre-University Education Outreach
Freedom burns bright in Prague
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Only two decades ago, the Czech Republic shook off the shackles of authoritarianism and planted the seeds of a vibrant democracy. The Velvet Revolution’s leader
Vaclav Havel
spoke of the “power of the powerless,” explaining how, in a society ruled by lies, truth gains a "singular, explosive, incalculable political power." Although Havel recently passed away, his powerful memory lives on, strong and steady, as made clear at a recent Google-and
Open Society Fund
sponsored event in Prague. A group of top ranking Czech editors met in the cozy Bar and Books to discuss the topic, “The End of Free Media.”
For the past two years, we have partnered with the Open Society Fund on a Journalism Award honoring innovative civic journalism. Our Google Digital Innovation Award celebrates the best online entry. Authors, editors, readers, viewers and listeners are encouraged to nominate interesting articles by February 2013. More info can be found
here
.
Our goal at Bar and Books was to share ideas about the current state of media freedom, potential threats, and steps to protect from government censorship and control. I represented Google on the panel and came away confident that the Czech Republic is a strong ally in the fight for Internet freedom. The Czech government is a founder member with the Netherlands’, Sweden, Estonia, the United States and others of the
Freedom Online alliance
. This December, Prague joined other European allies, in rejecting an
International Telecommunications Union treaty
that could open the door to authoritarian control of the Net.
The Czech capital is also home to a dedicated and broad network of freedom-loving NGOs. It was inspiring to hear from former Czech parliamentarian Oldrich Kuzilek how he has set up an association called
Otevrete
to encourage the government to allow access to taxpayer-funded data. Other organizations such as
Transitions
monitors regional trends in press freedom, while the
Pasos
think tank regroups 56 organizations around the region, united to promote democracy and human rights. Apologies to the NGOs omitted here for reasons of space.
We look forward to cooperating with both the Czech government and Czech civil society in order to promote Internet freedom.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
What it takes for governments to access personal information
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
Today we’re releasing new data for the
Transparency Report
, showing that the steady increase in government requests for our users’ data continued in the second half of 2012, as usage of our services continued to grow. We’ve shared figures like this
since 2010
because it’s important for people to understand how government actions affect them.
We’re always looking for ways to make the report even more informative. So for the first time we’re now
including
a breakdown of the kinds of legal process that government entities in the U.S. use when compelling communications and technology companies to hand over user data. From July through December 2012:
68 percent of the requests Google received from government entities in the U.S. were through subpoenas. These are requests for user-identifying information, issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), and are the easiest to get because they typically don’t involve judges.
22 percent were through ECPA search warrants. These are, generally speaking, orders issued by judges under ECPA, based on a demonstration of “probable cause” to believe that certain information related to a crime is presently in the place to be searched.
The remaining 10 percent were mostly court orders issued under ECPA by judges or other processes that are difficult to categorize.
User data requests of all kinds have increased by more than 70 percent since 2009, as you can see in our new visualizations of overall trends. In total, we received 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users from July through December 2012.
We’ll keep looking for more ways to inform you about government requests and how we handle them. We hope more companies and governments themselves join us in this effort by releasing similar kinds of data.
One last thing: You may have noticed that the latest Transparency Report doesn’t include new data on
content removals
. That’s because we’ve decided to release those numbers separately going forward. Stay tuned for that data.
Posted by Richard Salgado, Legal Director, Law Enforcement and Information Security
Celebrating five decades of Franco-German friendship
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
France and Germany today celebrate 50 years since the signing of the Elysee Treaty in Paris by French President Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The treaty marked a dramatic move away from hostility towards an era of unprecedented cooperation. The two nations soon came together as founding members of the European Union and to forge a partnership that would usher in an era of peace and prosperity in Europe.
We have worked with the
German-Franco Institute
,
German-Franco University
and
The Office for French-German Youth
to put together a
series of online exhibitions
which tell the stories behind this Franco-German friendship.
Videos
,
photos
,
documents
and expert commentary tell the human impact of the accord and chart the exchanges, academic cooperation and friendships launched by the treaty.
From
cultural institute
A particular highlight is a digital copy of the original
Elysee Treaty
supplied by the
German Foreign Office
. Visitors may zoom in to read the details of the agreement. Videos from the
Memory of the Nation
project explain what the postwar political relationship has meant to ordinary citizens. Testimony from people present in the crowd during De Gaulle’s
speech
to the German Youth calling Germany a ‘great nation’ and
photos
from the 300,000 exchanges between French and German youths help to capture the spirit of the new partnership. Around 170 multimedia items chart the history of how the Treaty led to the formation of the European Union and the evolution of the French-German relationship to the
present day
.
As well as being available online, our exhibitions and other information about the Franco-German partnership are being displayed in the German Foreign Office in Berlin and were unveiled by Deputy Minister of the German Foreign Office, Georg Michael Link, and the French Minister for European Affairs, Bernard Cazeneuve. The displays are open to the public until mid-March, additional information can be found
here
.
The five decades of Franco-German partnership represent the latest chapter in the work of the Google Cultural Institute, which aims to promote and preserve culture online. You can explore all its exhibitions on
www.google.com/culturalinstitute
and follow us on our
Google+ page
.
Posted by Philipp Bieberstein, Google Cultural Institute
Encouraging Italy’s small businesses to go digital
Monday, January 21, 2013
Italy has a long tradition of small, family owned companies becoming global leaders in fields ranging from furniture design and fashion to kitchen appliances and specialty foods. Part of their success is due to Italy's focus on creating networks of like-minded businesses, grouped together in industrial 'clusters' that encourage and enable innovation.
In order to stay ahead, we’re convinced that these clusters must leverage the Internet to help market, sell and distribute their goods. This month, we joined forces with the Union of the Italian Chambers of Commerce
Unioncamere
and the Ministry of Economic Development, to launch "Clusters on the Web."
The initiative will provide the small and medium-sized businesses from 20 Italian clusters with a young mentor and tutor who for six months will support them discovering the opportunities of the web economy. Thanks to Google, the selected young people will attend a training and will receive a scholarship.
We see big opportunities for Italy’s companies that go online. Already, a Venetian company
Atelier Marega
that sells Carnival masks, and an umbrella manufacturer from Mantua called
Pasotti Ombrelli
, pictured above, that is using the net to export their goods to 55 countries around the globe. Let’s hope that our new “Clusters on the Web” program can create many new shining success stories of Italian industries increasing their presence on the web.
Posted by Giorgia Abeltino, Policy Counsel, Google Italy
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