Google Europe Blog

EU-US Privacy Shield: restoring faith in data flows and transatlantic relations

Monday, August 29, 2016

UPDATE - Monday, September 26: The U.S. Department of Commerce has now formally approved Google's certification to the Privacy Shield as fully compliant and our certification can be viewed on the Privacy Shield list.
UPDATE - Monday 29th August: Today Google signed up for the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, submitting our certification to the U.S. Department of Commerce for approval. We are committed to applying the protections of the Privacy Shield to personal data transferred between Europe and the United States. In the blog we posted on July 12 (below), we detail why the Privacy Shield is an important achievement. We welcome the legal certainty that it brings.
Ever since the European Court of Justice invalidated the EU-US Safe Harbor Agreement in October 2015, businesses on both sides of the Atlantic have faced confusion about the future of transatlantic data transfers -- often transfers that are vital to the routine functioning of their operations. And much ink has been spilled about the complexity of the negotiations required to break the impasse and the resulting tensions in transatlantic relations.
On 12 July, 2016, as the final step in a long process of approvals, the European Commission adopted the new EU-US Privacy Shield. We applaud this achievement, which demonstrates that the EU and the US share important values and are able to work together to protect the fundamental right to privacy.
Following the agreement, we will ensure that our products and services meet the new standards of the Privacy Shield. And, building on our work with Europe’s Data Protection Authorities over the last few years, we’re also choosing to co-operate with Europe’s Data Protection Authorities on EU-US Privacy Shield inquiries.
As a company operating on both sides of the Atlantic, we welcome the legal certainty the Privacy Shield brings. Restoring trust -- in international data flows and in the Transatlantic Digital Agenda -- is crucial to continued growth in the digital economy.
Posted by: Caroline Atkinson, Head of Global Public Policy, Google

Helping emergency services find you when you need it most

Monday, July 25, 2016

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The new Google Arts & Culture, on exhibit now

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Google Arts & Culturecats in art since 200 BCEcolor red in Abstract Expressionismshoesall things goldVan Gogh’s works went from gloomy to vividMonet’s 50 shades of graytoday, it’s nine powerful men in heelsGoogle CardboardiOSAndroidtake a virtual tour of the street art scene in Romelook around the ancient Greek temple of ZeusGoogle Arts & Culturewhat Kandinsky and Kanye West have in commonmeet the New York-based “cyborg artist” Neil HarbissonDulwich Picture GalleryArt Gallery of New South WalesNational Gallery of Art

iOSAndroidPosted by Duncan Osborn, Product Manager, Google Cultural Institute

Congratulations to our 2016 Regional Finalists and European Community Impact Award Winner

Monday, July 18, 2016

Editor's note: For 2016, there are five Community Impact Awards: one for each top project that focuses on fixing a difficult problem across North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. We're also ramping up to announce the 16 Global Finalists that will be joining us for our Awards Celebration -- check out the Top 100 submitted by students around the world!Google Science FairYou can see the full list of the 100 Google Science Fair Regional Finalists here.CelebrationGoogle Science Fair websiteGoogle Science Fair siteGoogle+Twitter

Travel back to ancient Greece - Valle dei Templi opens doors to virtual visitors

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Google Cultural InstituteGoogle Street ViewArchaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Templesg.co/valledeitempli11 digital exhibitsGoogle Arts & Culture

Il Tempio della Concordiasports traditionscultural landscapealmondorange treesdivine protectors of the earthDoric Templespaleo-Christian side

In the paleo-Christian necropolis with Street ViewGoogle CardboardiOSAndroid

Continuing to create value while fighting piracy: An update

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Content IDHow Google Fights Piracy report

Leading the industry in finding copyright solutions that work: We go above and beyond the requirements of the law to lead the industry in finding solutions that work. Content ID is a great example of this. Content ID goes beyond a simple "notice-and-takedown" system to provide a set of automated tools that empowers rightsholders to automatically claim their content and choose whether to track, block or monetize it on YouTube. Content ID is a highly effective solution and today, over 98% of copyright management on YouTube takes place through Content ID, with only 2% being handled through copyright removal notices.

Providing new revenue streams for media industries and content owners: Content ID has also created a robust new revenue stream for the content industry. YouTube has paid out over $2 billion to rightsholders who have monetized their content through Content ID since it first launched. In fact, today well over 90% of all Content ID claims across the platform result in monetization. The music industry chooses to monetize more than 95% of their claims, opting to leave the content up on the platform - half of the music industry's YouTube revenue comes from fan content claimed via Content ID. Thanks to Content ID, YouTube is also the only platform that gives partners an automated way to directly monetize background/incidental use and covers.

Connecting fans to better legitimate alternatives: The best way to battle piracy is with better, more convenient, legitimate alternatives. And Google is all-in when it comes to partnering with the content industry to build and enable those alternatives. Through YouTube and Google Play, Google is in the business of helping users legitimately discover, purchase, and enjoy music, movies, books, magazines, and apps. Thanks to these platforms, Google Play has paid out more than $7 billion to developers while YouTube has paid out more than $3 billion to the music industry. Today, Google Play also makes music available in 62 countries, movies in 105 countries, and books in 75 countries.

Solving for Search: Thanks to the efforts of Google’s engineers, the vast majority of media-related queries that users submit every day return results that include only links to legitimate sites. For any problematic links that may appear for rarer “long-tail” queries, our systems for processing copyright removal notices handle millions URLs each day, in less than 6 hours on average. And when we get a large number of valid notices for a site, our search ranking algorithms demote that site in future search results.

Following the Money: Rogue sites that specialize in online piracy are commercial ventures, which means that one effective way to combat them is to cut off their money supply. As a global leader in online advertising, Google is committed to rooting out and ejecting rogue sites from our advertising services. Since 2012, Google has blacklisted more than 91,000 sites from AdSense for violating our policies against copyright infringement, the vast majority caught by AdSense’s own proactive screens. We have also been working with other advertising leaders to craft best practices aimed at raising standards across the entire online advertising industry, including in the US, UK, France, Italy, and Asia.

Announcing The Google Science Fair's European Finalists

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Editor's note: This year, we're celebrating 25 innovative Community Impact student projects across the globe that solve community and health resource challenges with science. While we're featuring the European finalists below, you can read more about all the finalists' projects on the Google EDU blog.
Through the Google Science Fair, we've invited today's brightest young minds to answer an important question: how can they make the world better through science, math, and engineering? We received thousands of extremely impressive answers to this question from over 107 countries this year, and we can’t wait to announce the winners later in September. Before that happens, though, we want to recognize the projects that aim to solve tough community challenges like providing clean drinking water, keeping people safe from natural disasters, and fighting droughts. This year, we'll be giving not just one, but five regional Community Impact Awards: one for each top project that focuses on fixing a difficult resource problem across North America, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa, Asia & the Pacific Islands, and Europe. Please join us and our partners — LEGO Education, Scientific American, National Geographic and Virgin Galactic — in celebrating the European Community Impact Award finalists below: Finding Our Way: Tools for the Visually-Impaired

Ilya (16) began exploring engineering and robotics at a young age in his home city of Moscow, Russia. When he saw a gap in affordable tools for people who are visually-impaired, he began creating a wearable 'radar' accessory that can identify nearby obstacles through vibration signals. After receiving feedback on his initial design from people who were blind or visually-impaired in his community, he created a second, lighter prototype that is even easier to wear. Embedded into a common baseball cap, this system alerts wearers to the specific direction of obstacles within 3.5m using gentle vibrations. This gives the wearer plenty of time to adjust their direction of movement, so they can safely reach their destination. Given its low production cost, Ilya hopes to see his device improve the quality of life for the visually-impaired in his community.
Saving Bosnia's Soil

Tarik (17) and Amor (16), of Sarajevo, Bosnia, have seen first hand how massive floods throughout Bosnia in May 2014 caused harmful lead contamination in local soil and drinking water. Eager to find a cost-effective way to create clean water for growing crops using a cheaper material that's also close at hand, the pair discovered that the white mustard plant, which is native to Bosnia and Herzegovina, is especially talented at absorbing lead. The plant is also of course biodegradable, creating a simple and very accessible way for their community to make local water safe again. Use Those Mussels: Cleaner Water for Everyone

A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Esra (13) was concerned about how difficult it can be for locals and visitors to access clean drinking water without worrying about lead contamination in highly industrialized areas. Most visitors are advised to drink bottled water, and to avoid getting tap water in their mouths when taking showers or brushing their teeth! Inspired to create a new filtering solution that can help people avoid this problem, Esra investigated the use of mussel shells as a filtering device. His work showed that mussel shells are ideally suited to absorbing lead from soil and water and plentiful. Luckily, they also cost very little. Esra hopes to introduce this filtering option to his local community to create clean water for everyone. Robot Medicine: The Modern E-Hospital

Alex (18) lives in Athens, Greece. Fascinated by the intersection between robotics, software design, and the internet, he wanted to create the ultimate solution to solving health problems "in the cloud." In thinking about who needs health care the most, he realized that many people can't afford to visit a hospital or are physically too far away to access quality health care. Particularly for critical situations where a patient needs surgical care urgently, Alex wondered: wouldn't the world be a better place if a surgeon could treat their patient safely from thousands of miles away? To solve this, Alex built a robot and manually coded software that could control the robot remotely from any internet-enabled device. Through software and mechanical engineerings, Alex has created a platform that enables medical professionals to help patients wherever they are in the world, at any time.
Making Turkey Earthquake-Ready with Recycled Cans

İlayda (15) and Ezgi (15) live in İzmir, Turkey. The 7.1 earthquake that hit Turkey in 2011 claimed over 600 lives, and local scientists predict that the next decade could bring even more damage as tension continues to build along the North Anatolian Fault line. Given that many of Turkey's buildings are older, scientists have appealed to officials to help the country retrofit its buildings and train city workers to handle a potential earthquake disaster that could claim thousands of lives. Inspired to help, İlayda and Ezgi sought an affordable way to retrofit local buildings in their community with an easily available material: aluminium cans. The pair designed a solution that can be used to fill traditional concrete walls, increasing their ability to absorb impact damage from 32% to 61%. The students look forward to helping their community stay safe should an earthquake happen in the future. Tune into the Google Science Fair website on July 18th to find out which five young scientists will win their regional Community Impact Award! With the generous support of our partners, winners will receive mentors and scholarships to help them further their education and inspiring projects. To keep an eye on the competition, visit the Google Science Fair site, and follow along on Google+ and Twitter. Posted by: Andrea Cohan, product marketing manager Google Science Fair