Net giants challenge French law

6 April 2011 Last updated at 10:01 ET

Google and Facebook are among a group of net heavyweights taking the French government to court this week.

The legal challenge has been brought by The French Association of Internet Community Services (ASIC) and relates to government plans to keep web users' personal data for a year.

The case will be heard by the State Council, France's highest judicial body.

More than 20 firms are involved, including eBay and Dailymotion.

The law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers.

This includes users' full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords. The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded.

Police, the fraud office, customs, tax and social security bodies will all have the right of access.

ASIC head Benoit Tabaka believes that the data law is unnecessarily draconian. "Several elements are problematic," he said.

"For instance, there was no consultation with the European Commission. Our companies are based in several European countries.

"Our activities target many national markets, so it is clear that we need a common approach," said Mr Tabaka.

ASIC also thinks that passwords should not be collected and warned that retaining them could have security implications.

"This is a shocking measure," added Mr Tabaka.

The main aim of the legal challenge, which will be launched later this week, is to see the law cancelled.

Privacy record

Both Facebook and Google have run into privacy-related problems in the past.

Facebook was forced to overhaul its privacy settings following criticism that they were too complex.

Google was criticised for lack of privacy in its Buzz social network, which it linked to Gmail accounts without seeking prior permission from users.

The search giant eventually agreed to submit to annual privacy audits as part of a settlement reached over the controversy.

France took tough action against Google when it accidentally collected personal data during the setting up of its Street View service.

The French privacy watchdog, CNIL, was one of the only bodies to fine the company. The �87,000 fine was the largest ever handed out by CNIL.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text Feed | Amazon Affiliate

M&S customers hit by e-mail hack

6 April 2011 Last updated at 04:46 ET

Marks and Spencer customers have been warned to expect an increase in spam e-mail after hackers stole their details.

The company has contacted users of its online service to warn them about the data breach, which was part of a wider attack on marketing firm Epsilon.

A number of American companies also had their mailing lists compromised, including the hotel chains Marriott and Hilton, as well as several banks.

Marks and Spencer said that customers' financial details were safe.

"We have been informed by Epsilon, a company we use to send emails to our customers, that some M&S customer email addresses have been accessed without authorisation," the retailer said in an email sent on Tuesday evening.

"We wanted to bring this to your attention as it is possible that you may receive spam email messages as a result.

"No other personal information, such as your account details, has been accessed or is at risk."

Epsilon admitted on 1 April that an "unauthorized entry" to their systems had taken place on 30 March.

They clarified on Monday that the breach affected 2% of their clients - among them many big banks and retailers.

"A rigorous assessment determined that no other personal identifiable information associated with those names was at risk. A full investigation is currently underway," the US-based company said.

Marks and Spencer's statement told customers that it will "continue to work diligently to protect your personal information".

Last week, a similar security blunder by marketing firm Silverpop lead to customers from entertainment retailer Play.com being put at risk of inceased spam and phishing attacks.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text Feed | Amazon Affiliate

Twitter predicts future of stocks

6 April 2011 Last updated at 03:23 ET

Twitter may not yet have found a way to make money for itself but it is doing a good job of generating cash for its users, research suggests.

A study conducted by a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich found that investors following stock market tweets could have achieved an average return rate of 15%.

Timm Sprenger analysed 250,000 tweets sent over a six-month period.

He predicts Twitter will increasingly offer specialised information to users.

Thousands of stock-related messages are sent every day via tweets. Tweeting investors mark tweets according to company stock symbols.

There was "a striking co-ordination" between what Twitter was saying about shares and other information from investors and analysts, he found.

"I don't think it is the Holy Grail to make millions but it is a very credible and legitimate source," he said.

He also found that more valuable information was retweeted, meaning that it reached a wider audience.

The study formed the basis of the website TweetTrader.net where the real-time sentiment for individual stocks can be accessed. The site is currently in beta (trial).

Mr Sprenger conducted similar research on the federal elections in Germany last year. Using Twitter, he was able to predict the final results for each political party to within 2% of the votes they received.

"We got as close as the research institutions that spent hundreds of thousands of pounds," he said.

Twitter already extrapolates the information that is most-talked about via its Trending Topics feed.

Mr Sprenger predicts that it will increasingly offer more specialised versions of the service.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text Feed | Amazon Affiliate