Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
What the...?
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
Dear Google users
You may be aware of press reports alleging that Internet companies have joined a secret U.S. government program called PRISM to give the National Security Agency direct access to our servers. As Google’s CEO and Chief Legal Officer, we wanted you to have the facts.
First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a “back door” to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday.
Second, we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process. Press reports that suggest that Google is providing open-ended access to our users’ data are false, period. Until this week’s reports, we had never heard of the broad type of order that Verizon received—an order that appears to have required them to hand over millions of users’ call records. We were very surprised to learn that such broad orders exist. Any suggestion that Google is disclosing information about our users’ Internet activity on such a scale is completely false.
Finally, this episode confirms what we have long believed—there needs to be a more transparent approach. Google has worked hard, within the confines of the current laws, to be open about the data requests we receive. We post this information on our
Transparency Report
whenever possible. We were the first company to do this. And, of course, we understand that the U.S. and other governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety—including sometimes by using surveillance. But the level of secrecy around the current legal procedures undermines the freedoms we all cherish.
Posted by Larry Page, CEO and David Drummond, Chief Legal Officer
Creating jobs in Europe’s industrial heartland
Friday, June 7, 2013
It was a standing room only crowd. More than 400 Belgians, including
Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo
, small business owners, teachers and students, recently jammed into the Mundaneum museum’s headquarters in Mons near our St. Ghislain data center. They had come to hear a full day series of Google-supported lectures and presentations at the region’s first ever
Web Jobs Fair
.
As demand for our products grows, we’re investing hundreds of millions of Euros in expanding our data centres Europe. Many of our data centres are located in traditional industrial areas where one might not immediately think of being the home for a Google facility. Our St. Ghislain facility in southern Belgium sits in the heart of a traditional coal mining region. In Finland, the region around our Hamina data centre was a military capital for the country and the heart of the now struggling paper industry.
In St. Ghislain, we announced a EUR300 million additional investment this spring, and we get excited about expansions because our investment in a data center is about more than just bricks, mortar and servers. At the peak of construction, for example, the expansion will provide employment for around 350 engineering and construction workers. In Hamina, we’re investing an additional EUR150 million, providing work for (at peak) approximately 500 engineering and construction workers.
Further, the data center provides full time jobs for people who come from diverse backgrounds and skills. Already, more than 180 work at our data center in St. Ghislain, both direct Google employees and full-time contractors, and 125 at our Hamina facility. And the jobs at our data centers are not just for computer scientists. While some positions require backgrounds in hardware operations, many are for electricians, plumbers as well some some non-technical administrative roles.
With this new expansion we are back in hiring mode for all of these types of jobs. While we are fortunate to get applications from around the globe for these positions, we love to hire locally and many of our current data center employees are from the immediate region. Since we work in English, we require all candidates to be to carry out tasks in English, but if you have a passion for working in a fast moving environment with people who are dedicated to making a large operation hum and have skills in any of these areas, we’d love to hear from you. All of our open positions can be found on
Google Jobs page
here
for positions in Finland and
here
for positions in Belgium.
Data centers are critical to our ability to provide all of our services. We are so delighted to have found wonderful homes in
Hamina
and
St. Ghislain
, and many more exciting years ahead. For more info on these two data centers please visit our site for and google.com/
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Brussels
Promoting a Safe Web in Brussels - and throughout Europe
Thursday, June 6, 2013
As a mum of two energetic and curious kids, I love to see how the Internet helps them learn, share and be entertained. Like any parent, I also understand how the Internet can become an overwhelming place and that, as in real life, includes bad actors.
That’s why I work at Google to help parents and children surf safely. My job is to mobilize support for parents, teachers, and non-profit organizations to promote child safety through fun and innovative ways - from theater performances in Greece to animation contests in Germany.
The projects, I’m happy to say, are attracting attention at the highest levels of the European Union. This week, I participated in a meeting of the
Better Internet for Kids Coalition in Brussels
, an initiative launched by
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes
. Our Senior Vice President Rachel Whetstone explained, via video, how we build safety tools such as
SafeSearch
and
YouTube Safety Mode
.
I’m always on the lookout for creative ways to spread the safety message. In Greece, the local
Saferinternet.gr
coalition has produced a play called “The Internet Farm.” After the performances, children, teachers and parents participate in safety workshops. Take a look:
In Germany, we have partnered with the biggest festival of German-language children’s media
Golden Sparrow
, supporting a new online prize promoting child safety. This year’s winner, recently announced is
Kindernetz
. Our
YouTube 361° Respect
campaign against racism, discrimination and bullying recently had its grand finale featuring the pop band “Glasperlenspiel.”
We look forward to continuing our work with Vice President Neelie Kroes in Brussels - and parents and children throughout the European Union.
Posted by Sabine Frank, Public Policy & Gov't Relations Counsel, Media Literacy, Berlin
Honoring Czech and Slovak digital journalism
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Throughout Europe, we’re working with journalists to encourage the transition from paper to digital distribution. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, we support the
digital journalism awards
to honor the best quality digital articles, and we’re encouraged to see how the digital news movement is gaining momentum.
A total of 351 entries were received in the Czech Republic and 685 in Slovakia, a jump of about 10 percent from the previous year. The public chose online the article that had the biggest social impact. More than 15,000 readers cast ballots. The results are visible
here
Jindrich Ginter, editor of the daily
Pravo
, won for a series an
article
about financial fraud.
Winners of the Czech and Slovak digital journalism awards.
We also supported the special category - Google Digital Innovation Award for journalists who use online technologies to investigate social issues. The winners include:
Google Digital Innovation: Professional Journalism
Czech: Hospodarske Noviny's online
iHNED
work on data journalism
Slovak: Daily SME's online
video
report titled "The Handbook of the Brain."
Google Digital Innovation: Citizen Journalism
Czech: Volunteer website
Demagog's
reports on politicians embellishing the truth.
Take a look above at
photos
of the award event. The journalism initiative was part of our
Google For Czech Society
campaign. Stay tuned for more activities.
Posted by Janka Zichova, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Prague
Powering our Finnish data center with Swedish wind energy
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
What do a Swedish wind farm developer, a German insurance company and Google’s Finnish data center have in common? As of today, a lot. We’ve just inked agreements with
O2
and
Allianz
to supply our Finnish data center with renewable energy for the next 10 years—our fourth long-term agreement to power our data centers with renewable energy worldwide, and our first in Europe.
Here’s how it works: O2, the wind farm developer, has obtained planning approval to build a new 72MW wind farm at
Maevaara
, in Övertorneå and Pajala municipality in northern Sweden, using highly efficient 3MW wind turbines. We’ve committed to buying the entire output of that wind farm for 10 years so that we can power our Finnish data center with renewable energy. That agreement has helped O2 to secure 100% financing for the construction of the wind farm from the investment arm of German insurance company Allianz, which will assume ownership when the wind farm becomes operational in early 2015.
This arrangement is possible thanks to Scandinavia’s integrated electricity market and grid system, Nord Pool. It enables us to buy the wind farm’s output in Sweden with Guarantee of Origin certification and consume an equivalent amount of power at our data center in Finland. We then “retire” the Guarantee of Origin certificates to show that we’ve actually used the energy.
As a carbon neutral company, our goal is to use as much renewable energy as possible—and by doing so, stimulate further production. The Maevaara wind farm not only allows us to make our already
highly energy-efficient
Finnish data center even more sustainable, it also meets our goal of adding new renewable energy generation capacity to the grid.
Of course, using renewable energy is good for the environment, but it also makes long term financial sense. That’s why, in addition to protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices through long-term purchasing for our operations, we also invest in new renewable energy projects that will deliver a return for our money. In recent years we’ve committed more than $1 billion to such projects in the
U.S.
,
Germany
and, just last week,
South Africa
. We’ll continue to look for similar opportunities around the globe.
Posted by Francois Sterin, Senior Manager, Global Infrastructure Team
Debating Internet Freedom in Warsaw
Monday, June 3, 2013
It was a scintillating debate in a pivotal country for Internet Freedom. In the auditorium of Poland’s prestigious newspaper
Gazeta Wyborcza
, renowned Oxford professor and writer
Timothy Garton Ash
hosted Digitisation Minister
Michal Boni
, Gazeta journalist
Wojciech Orlinski
, and another journalist
Andrzej Grajewiski
from
Gosc Niedzielny
, a newspaper linked to Roman Catholic Church.
Poland was the first in the former Soviet Bloc to bring down communist rule and install a free, democratic government. Thanks to this courageous history, Poles cherish Internet freedom. Huge
demonstrations
last year in the country’s main cities against the anti-piracy ACTA treaty helped lead to the treaty’s rejection in the European parliament – and meant that Poland was one of the most fervent advocates of the European Union rejecting last December a proposed United Nations treaty that could give governments too much control over the Net.
Timothy Garton Ash moderated the debate.
Left to right: Michal Boni, Wojciech Orlinski andAndrzej Garjewski
At the same time, much concern exists in the country about a worrying rise in hate speech and Polish judges have handed down surprisingly expansive rulings on intermediary liability.
Gazeta's main conference room was almost full.
Many of Poland’s most illustrious intellectuals filled Gazeta's main conference room. The newspaper’s founder, the former dissident,
Adam Michnik
, was supposed to show up only for a few minutes to say hello. Instead, he ended up staying for the full two and a half hours, and for the ensuing cocktail. Afterward, he said it was the first time an official associated with the Church (Gazeta is staunchly secular) had come to the newspaper headquarters.
Suffice it say that the debate was vigorous, discussing the frequent collision between privacy and freedom, the church’s concern about hate speech, and the need for Poland to become more aware of the issues around free expression on the Internet. We will be working hard in Poland to continue raising the importance of this issue.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Expanding Google Business Photos in Europe
Friday, May 31, 2013
Want to show off appealing images of your business? We've just expanded Google Maps
Business Photos program
to six new European countries including:
Belgium
,
Czech Republic
,
Germany
,
Poland
,
Russia
, and
Switzerland
.
The Business Photos program enables merchants to create 360-degree, interactive tours of their establishments. This imagery allows potential customers to look inside and explore businesses before they go.
Bohema restaurant in Szczecin, Poland
Are you a business owner?
If you are a business owner in any of these locations, joining the program is easy.
Simply hire a Trusted Photographer or Agency
to take pictures. Using Street View technology, the photographer will create panoramic images from the photo shoot and upload them. These images will be available automatically to anyone who searches for your business on Google.com, Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile and on your Google+ page or Places for Business listing. If a local photographer isn’t yet available in your neighborhood,
let us know
and we’ll do our best to find a photographer for you.
Fat Cow Restaurant in Singapore
Photographers can sign up...
Whether you’re a professional photographer or photography agency we’d love to have you on board! We are recruiting more Trusted Photographers and Agencies. Please visit our website for
Trusted Photographers
and
Trusted Agencies
to learn more and sign up.
Posted by Deborah Schenker, Program Manager, Google Business Photos
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