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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/27/guardianweeklytechnologysection.comment3
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2174406,00.html
Marek, charged for insulting the President, admitted he had created a so-called "Google bomb" in order to check out his abilities. He has written a software programme for what is known as "website positioning." Typing a certain word into a search engine automatically brings forth a certain website; in this case typing "kutas" in Google triggered the President's website.
Andrzej Holdys, a regional prosecutor stated: "If somebody uses a derogatory word to libel the head of state than it's a clear insult which violates the law" considering that the case had nothing to do with the freedom of speech.
Yet, the charges were criticised by Jacek Bialas of Amnesty International in Poland who thought that the President should have filed a case against Marek as a private person if he had felt insulted.
Google stated at the beginning of 2007 that they had succeeded in defusing the impact of Google bombs by applying a scalable algorithm.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL1470285520070914
In the Corporate category the Dutch railroad service (NS) were the winner. It has a dominant role in the implementation of a privacy intruding smart card for public transportation. The system will collect, keep and use personally identifiable data on all travel. The NS, the national rail monopoly, penalise those who wish to travel anonymously. The NS were present to receive the award. Five minutes later they received a warning from guest speaker Jacob Kohnstamm, chair of Dutch Data Protection Authority. He confirmed that their current privacy policy is not in line with the data protection legislation. He promised severe penalties if they introduce the system without changes to their policy on the use of personal data.
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, received the award for government institutions. DNB looked the other way when it was informed about the transfer of financial records to American authorities through SWIFT. Following the discovery of the central bank's knowledge, DNB defended itself by stating that the privacy of Dutch citizens is not one of its responsibilities.
The Electronic Child Dossier won in the Proposal category. The blind trust of authorities that problems will be solved by registration of personal data is shocking. To implement the Dossier, Youth and Families Minister Rouvoet plans on establishing a centralised database of all Dutch children. A file will be updated for every child until they reach the age of nineteen. and the file will be kept for another 15 years after that. The dataset is very broadly defined and will contain a wide variety of medical and psychosocial data, including all sorts of subjective opinions about children and their parents.
The Big Brother Awards put individuals, companies, government institutions and proposals that violate privacy in the spotlight. The jury announced the winners at the fifth Dutch Big Brother Awards ceremony on 21 September 2007 in De Balie in Amsterdam. The jury consisted of lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, legal researcher and advisor Bart Schermer, Professor of Computer Security Bart Jacobs, Professor of Regulation & Technology Bert-Jaap Koops, Professor of Law & Information Science Corien Prins and author Karin Spaink (Chair). The Dutch Big Brother Awards are organised by Bits of Freedom.
Burma's bloggers are using the internet to beat censorship, and tell the world what is happening under the military junta's veil of secrecy.
Images of saffron-robed monks leading throngs of people along the streets of Rangoon have been seeping out of a country famed for its totalitarian regime and repressive control of information.
The pictures are sometimes grainy and the video footage shaky - captured at great personal risk on mobile phones - but each represents a powerful statement of political dissent.
"It is amazing how the Burmese are able through underground networks to get things from outside and inside," says Vincent Brussels, head of the Asian section of press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders.
"Before, they were moving things hand-to-hand and now they are using the internet - proxy websites, Google and YouTube and all these things."
On the inside
The use of the internet as a political tool is one of the most marked differences between the latest protests and the 1988 uprising, which was brutally repressed.
Thanks in part to bloggers, this time the outside world is acutely aware of what is happening on the streets of Rangoon, Mandalay and Pakokku and is hungry for more information.
They [the government] can see that people are looking at my site... that means they are scared so they are trying to manipulate me, to use people power."
The emerging dissenting voices will ultimately lead to an impasse by the year’s end when Reding is supposed to push forward her vision for telecoms regulations in the EU. Although a concerted opposition by the governments of the key nations will undoubtedly undermine her efforts, the more likely outcome will be an internal review to iron out a compromise position. Such a step would not be new given that a middle policy ground was found for the now-imposed cuts in EU mobile-roaming charges.
http://www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases/2007/2007_09_26_cpi_2007_en
The maPolitique site is a private initiative aimed at inciting citizens to take a more active interest in the political life of the country, and providing them with a channel through which they can make their views heard. “Faced with a growing disinterest in politics, the web opens up the political debate and brings it much closer to people, announcing a real democratic revolution – a ‘new-look’ democracy is being born on the web,” note the site’s creators.
The eDemocracy tools being proposed on mapolitique.be are intended to help promote a better dialogue between elected representatives and voters: interactive debates, on-line petitions, open letters and blogs. Other features are in the pipeline too.
In Belgium, eDemocracy is still in the early stages but more and more politicians are beginning to use the new communication possibilities offered by the web (blogs, internet sites, web TVs). The general public too are increasingly active in cyberspace. Internet use is very high, as is involvement in on-line communities, chat rooms and open forums.
Some are predicting the birth of a ‘fifth power’: after the executive, legislative, judicial and the medias, the power of citizens united thanks to new communication technologies. In contrast to the traditional political debate, the Internet has some strong attractions: it is easy to use, interactive and very accessible, even for those generally excluded from the political debate.
