Orange, the mobile and broadband operator, has decided not to use Phorm’s targeted advertising technology because of concerns about protecting its customers’ data…

… Mr Fournier [senior vice-president of Orange's online advertising division] said the Phorm model currently lacked “clarity” on customers’ privacy…

Source: Financial Times (Tim Bradshaw), 30 October 2008.

Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google have signed up to a privacy framework which orders them to challenge any government in the world over requests for private information if they believe the request breaks international human rights laws.

The three companies are amongst those who have signed up to the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an organisation formed to promote a set of principles by which its members agree to abide.

Source: Out-law

Shadow security minister Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) needs to be addressed to stop the misuse of anti-terrorist powers by local authorities. “We will clean up RIPA,” said Neville-Jones. “Look at the number of authorities who have access to information and have powers to investigate what you put in your dustbins and that your children are going to school in the right catchment area. These are powers under RIPA. Are they desirable? Certainly not.”

Neville-Jones said “We’ve gone very quickly from paper records that are not easily transferable to electronic data,” said Neville-Jones. “Now the issue is the privacy of individuals.” … “the powers of the state are greater than the controls over it to prevent the abuse of power”. Specific measures would include a revision of RIPA legislation, plus a strengthening of the independent oversight by the surveillance commissioner of the use of powers by local authorities.

Source: ZDNet

Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has asked Nominet, which is in charge of the .co.uk registry, to justify its independence from Whitehall. In a letter dated October 15, senior civil servant David Hendon, BERR’s Director of Business Relations, asked Nominet chairman Bob Gilbert: “What arguments would you employ to convince my Ministers that the present relationship between government and the and the company is appropriate in ensuring that public policy objectives in relation to the management of the domain name system and the standing of the UK in the internet community are are understood and taken into account?”

Source:The Register

The number of data breaches reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has soared to 277 since HMRC lost 25 million child benefit records nearly a year ago. New figures, released today by the ICO, include 80 reported breaches by the private sector, 75 within the NHS and other health bodies, 28 reported by central government, 26 by local authorities and 47 by the rest of the public sector. The ICO is investigating 30 of the most serious cases.

…It is time for the penny to drop. The more databases that are set up and the more information exchanged from one place to another, the greater the risk of things going wrong. The more you centralise data collection, the greater the risk of multiple records going missing or wrong decisions about real people being made. The more you lose the trust and confidence of customers and the public, the more your prosperity and standing will suffer. Put simply, holding huge collections of personal data brings significant risks.

Source:Information Commissioners Office Press Release
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner speech to RSA Conference Europe on data breaches

Court decisions on whether software patents are permissible within Europe have see-sawed wildly, with some decisions in favour being counterbalanced by others that confirm that software cannot be patented “as such”. Unfortunately, those meaningless weasel words “as such” have provided a tiny opening for proponents of software patents – typically large companies that want to use intellectual monopolies to stifle competition, and software patent lawyers who want more lucrative business – that the latter are constantly trying to widen.

Here’s the latest attempt, which takes the form of a referral of a “point of law” concerning software patents by the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) to the EPO “Enlarged Board of Appeal”, something that seems to happen quite rarely. Now, you do not have to be a genius to see the problem with this; essentially, the EPO is asking itself whether it wants to widen its own jurisdiction, increase its power and boost its income by allowing software patents. Unless the Enlarged Board of Appeal consists entirely of self-denying, altruistic masochists, I think we can all guess what the answer will be.

Source: ComputerworldUK

The Edinburgh Council by-election due to be held early next month is to adopt the same electronic voting system as was used for the last national election in May 2007, sparking fears that history will be unnecessarily repeated.

Source: The Edinburgh Journal

President of the EPO asks for clarification of exclusion

Considering that diverging decisions of the EPO’s boards of appeal have created uncertainty, EPO President Alison Brimelow has referred a number of questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO (EBoA) in relation to the patentability of programs for computers under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The answers to the questions are believed to be necessary to enable the further harmonious development of case law in this field and the EBoA is in charge of ensuring uniform application of the EPC.

The referral does not call into question the applicable provisions of the EPC: Article 52(2) and (3) states that programs for computers as such are not to be regarded as inventions, in other words they are excluded from patentability. However, guidance is sought on how some of the finer aspects of this exclusion are to be applied.

The questions seek clarification not only on when a claim as a whole falls under the exclusion, but also on the circumstances under which individual features relating to programs for computers can contribute to the technical character of a claim (in which case they are relevant for assessing novelty and inventive step). It is hoped that the answers to these questions will lead to greater clarity concerning the limits of patentability, thereby facilitating application of the EPC by patent examiners and enabling both applicants and the wider public to understand the law regarding the patentability of programs for computers.

Specifically, the questions address four different aspects of patentability in this field. The first question relates to the relevance of the category of the claim. The other three questions ask where the line should be drawn between those aspects excluded from patentability and those contributing to the technical character of the claimed subject-matter: the second question concerns the claim as a whole; the third, individual features of the claim; and the fourth - relevant for defining the skills of the (technically) skilled person - concerns the activity (the programming) underlying the resulting product (the computer program).

Source: The European Patent Office

Parlimentry written question:
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Minister, Justice; Epping Forest, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether there are any plans to introduce e-voting mechanisms before the local and European elections in 2009.

Michael Wills (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice; North Swindon, Labour)

No. The Government do not plan to introduce e-voting for the 2009 European or local elections.

The way forward more generally on e-voting will be informed by the valuable experience gained from earlier pilots, analysis of the responses to the election day consultation, and further development work including the possible further testing of e-voting solutions in non-statutory elections.

Source: TheyWorkForYou.com

Eleanor Laing

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether there are any plans for further e-voting pilots in the next 12 months.

Michael Wills (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice; North Swindon, Labour)

The Government have no plans for further e-voting pilots in statutory elections at this stage.

Source: TheyWorkForYou.com

According to the good folk at EDRI the telecoms package recently passed by the EU parliament retains worrying provisions potentially facilitating the introduction of a 3-strikes law on a European scale. German MEP, Ruth Hieronymi, who was instrumental in blocking amendment 132 which clearly oppposed a 3 strikes regime, has stated publicly that she believes the telecoms package directive, as passed, now contains the legal framework for setting up an EU 3 strikes law or as the lobbyists like to call it the “graduated response” approach. “In an attempt to influence the German government’s position, a seminar, “on the development of Creative content online” was organized by the French embassy in Berlin with the title “Can the Olivennes agreement set the course for the digital future?”. During the seminar, German MEP Ruth Hieronymi clearly stated that co-operation amendment 112 of the Harbour report in the Telecoms Package provided the basis for the graduated response in EU law. “I am absolutely convinced, that the legal framework is there, to fashion a model like Olivennes that is compatible with European law” she stated in relation to the Telecoms Package.

Source: Ray Corrigan