http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/business/global/stern-words-and-pea-size-punishment-for-google.html?pagewanted=all

In this article titled “Stern Words, and a Pea-Size Punishment, for Google” the author writes of the inadequate maximum penalties that are in no way deterring big corporations like Google from violating certain data protection laws in Europe. The current fines are set at a maximum of 150,000 euros or 195,000 dollars. As the article states, that is how much Google makes about every two minutes. With such meager fines these huge corporations will not feel any pressure to abide by the data protection laws. Lawmaker’s in Europe are considering changing the current data protection law to include fines of up to 2% annual earnings. Google was recently charged with violating the law in Germany as well as prompting investigations in several other countries for taking photos for its Street View maps, as well as “collecting data like like e-mail messages and photos over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, outraging consumers and privacy advocates.” Google has been sued numerous times in America for various privacy violations and settled for millions of dollars, including a 22.5 million dollar settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. Do you think greater fines will lead to less violations and more privacy or will the benefits of violating the laws always outway the risk of high fines? Should there be something else done about this problem, such as stricter laws or more transparency?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/technology/updating-an-e-mail-law-from-the-last-century.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I was reading this article by Somini Sengupta in the New York Times about how outdated internet privacy laws are in this country and she stated that “Congress is now set to clarify those rules, bringing that quarter-century-old law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or E.C.P.A., in line with the Internet age.” I found the outdated version of the statute very strange in that it allows the government to obtain emails that are over 6 months old or that have already been opened with just a subpoena. Only recent emails required a warrant. There have also been conflicting court rulings on what does and does not constitute “electronic storage” as well as what agencies have access to what content.The growth of cloud computing is said to be a major factor in the recent decisions to update the statute with Congress uploading sensitive information as well. Hopefully this bill will pass and create stricter privacy laws. The bill requiring the government to obtain a search warrant issued by a judge in order to read a person’s email and other online content has since gotten approval of the full Senate. Do you think the current laws will be able to catch up with the high-tech world we live in now?

Google Glass has been a hot topic lately and many people have shown concern over the privacy and safety issues surrounding Google’s newest product. There is already a proposed amendment  out of West Virginia to ban driver’s from wearing the Glass and many businesses have already planned to ban people from wearing the Glass inside their establishments including casinos, movie theaters, and even some restaurants. There is also a campaign called “Stop The Cyborgs” which warns against using Google Glass because they see it as the end of privacy altogether and they have called on Google to put certain measures in place to make sure some damage control is done, including getting rid of facial recognition software. Google responded to the backlash claiming that people will eventually soften up to the idea and social norms will change to allow the Glass to be better accepted into society. I also recently read this article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=google-glass-smartglass-competition which seems to predict that most people will be wearing the Glass within the next couple of years and that many different companies will be coming out with their take on the smartglasses. The article also mentions new applications for the smartglasses not just as the new cellphone for the average consumer but as a new tool for certain occupations such as the engineering, healthcare, and law enforcement fields. It even gives an example of a surgeon wearing the smartglasses while operating on their patient, which I find pretty frightening. Do you think that smartglasses will become the next big thing and improve the way we do our jobs and live our lives or will the issues of privacy and safety become too problematic?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/google-transparency-report-2013_n_3163138.html

According to this article Google has been releasing transparency reports since 2010 to show the public how many times it has been given requests for censorship and by whom. This year has seen the most requests for removal of content and Google released a statement claiming that it was mostly due to the video titled “Innocence of Muslims” which caused a lot of tension in the Muslim world leading many countries with a large Muslim population to ask Google to either remove the video or Youtube itself. I think this transparency report is great and should encourage more transparency throughout the internet as the Filter Bubble’s last chapter suggested. What do you think about Google’s transparency reports and its agreement to work with governments to censor certain things in certain countries?

Under this article was a related video on the issue of subpoenas vs. warrants when it comes to law enforcement asking Google for access to our emails and even our Facebook messages and friends, which Google of course does not have access to. As of right now law enforcement agencies do not need to show probable cause to look through our emails, which means that they do not need warrants but simply subpoenas. Google is given the chance to deny the subpoenas and not hand over any information about you that it doesn’t want to. I find this troublesome but I am glad that Google is trying to push legislation that would change this practice of subpoenas and replace it with warrants. I also think that it is pretty ridiculous that certain law enforcement agencies would be ignorant enough to ask Google for your Facebook information. How do you feel about subpoenas vs. warrants when it comes to your Google accounts?