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Very interesting article about people being marked in social networks even if they are not a member - can Facebook and the like be made responsible? An Italian court recently sentenced three Google executives because of a video posted by a user. Swiss and German privacy watchdogs further discuss the matter, many other EU nations are also involved. Google asks where to draw the line between censorship (controlling users' content being an invasion of their privacy) and free speech. There could be a conflict between US Web Giants and EU authorities. Only mentioned in passing that American media companies only react very slowly to European concerns "given the close relationship between Silicon Valley and the administration of President Obama".

Google Australia says here that the mandatory internet filtering is too wide and they believe that the filtering not only would slow user access speeds, but also questions the legitimacy of the measure because of the associated restrictions on access to information

A Brazilian judge has fined Google in Brazil over a comment posted by an anonymous user stating that a priest is a paedophile. Raises the question of who is responsible for defamatory comments - the publisher (in this case Google) or the poster. Reminds me of a similar case of one of my fave blogs, Kitsune Noir - a music and design blog from the US. A poster made a critical comment about a design that the blogger had written about and the designer threatened legal action against Kitsune Noir.

Google announced to use SSL to secure user's data, keep it hard for hackers and government to spy on users' searches.

Article sums up the news around Facebook and Google Street View of the last weeks. The sleeping issue of privacy is said to have woken up. The U.S. Congress as well as the Federal Communications Commission and a Federal Trade Commission are asked to take action.

The spat continues between Google and Stephen Conroy with their arguments looking to be ongoing ad infinitum in a bid to get back at the other. Although the Greens also pipe up with saying Conroy looks as though his vehement criticisms of Google do appear to be consequence to their outspoken criticisms of the mandatory filter.

Privacy may not be completely dead with Google promising a broader future roll out of an SSL encrypted Google search meaning companies will not be able to track where traffic to a site comes from...

Article although from earlier this year is an interesting comment from Lessig in which he praises Google for the Book Settlement allowing the public more access than fair use, but which he speaks out against in the level of control control the settlement which allows different types of licensing on word/quote/page basis. Potentially it could be a permissions nightmare for people who would like to use excerpts from the books.

Two of the world's leading providers of online services Google and Yahoo have criticised the federal government's plan to censor internet content as heavy handed. The Australian government are now trying to enhance accountability and transparency of the mandatory ISPs filering schema.

A blog post about the implications of the launch of Google Buzz!

Big discussion about the permanent storage of personal data in Germany at the moment. Google and its inter-connected services is just one part of it. The government talks about the "Gläserne Bürger" (vitreous citizen) but still they seem to like it somehow - at least they haven't come to an agreement yet. Also see http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,682129,00.html @Google street view: The campus of Sydney University cannot be visited via this service. Why?

Is this the end of the story? Google seems to challenge China by taking out the filters to content

Google speaks out on censorship and the violation of user privacy in China. Yahoo in the US agrees but its Chinese partner Alibaba Group does not. Are they afraid of a backlash from Beijing and fear for their ungoing business success? Makes me wonder how bad the quagmire in China really is...

A leak of the requirements made by the Chinese gov to Chinese media outlets on how  to deal with the google affair!

China and Google are in negotiations to break their ongoing feud... apparently. According to this article, 25 more countries around the globe have taken steps to censoring the internet, which calls for discussions about basic human rights and the so-called online "embargo" this puts on US companies.

South Korean government still thinks that the benefits of censorship are worth the opprobrium. They block dusscusion sites, arrest bloggers for rediculous reasons; for instance, they publish controversial opinions or propagating falsehood online. Since many popular foreign websites such as Google and Youtube decided to require its users to undergo identity verification, Korean internet users have nowhere to have the freedom of speech on the web planet.

This article discusses who is held resposible for cyberbullying. Three executives from Google have been convicted of privacy violation, and have been accused of not acting swiftly enough to take down an online video of an autistic boy being beating by teen bullies. There are many issues that arise from this topic, for example, how far does accountability stretch, does it stem from the original poster, to the Internet Service Provider, the company hosting the content.It brings to question who do we hold responsible, and under which jurisdiction and set of laws do we use. Should there be a screening process to prevent such videos from being posted online?

google's response to the cyber attacks in China, and claim to close google.cn.