Europe Started Legal Attack against Google

After Google refused to change its privacy policy in EU, six European countries decided to coordinate an enforcement push against the search giant. The list of the countries determined to teach Google a lesson include the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain. All of them have started investigations into the search giant’s net privacy. In case Google is found guilty, the penalties will be swingeing, amounting to millions of dollars.

The investigations launched by the countries centre around a decision made by the search giant at the start of 2012 to share data for services like YouTube and Gmail. In the beginning, the investigation was initiated by national agencies in all 27 European countries that asked France to start an investigation.

In the meanwhile, Google kept insisting that its privacy policy didn’t break European legislation, but a month ago investigators from the 6 countries met with executives and revealed there was not a satisfactory response from the company. At the moment, it is unclear what the next step in the investigations will be, but it seems that each of the 6 countries participating in the effort will have to approach the search giant separately. The reason for this step is said to be the fact that there isn’t Europe wide legislation governing such issues.

Skype and Whatsapp Have Troubles in Saudi Arabia

e country’s watchdog has recently claimed that the apps in question flout the local telecom legislation. The Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has ordered telecom operators to check the use of Skype and Whatsapp. While in western countries such warnings can be bogged down in lots of legal cases, it isn’t like that in Saudi justice.

Skype has received a warning a few days ago when the Saudi Arabia’s press said authorities had asked telecom companies to investigate ways to monitor or block these services. The Communications and Information Technology Commission claimed in a statement on its site that it had become evident that a number of online communication apps don’t meet regulatory requirements.

Actually, if Skype fails to comply with Saudi laws then the service can face problems in the country. The most interesting part is that neither the CITC nor the Saudi government ever said which law has been broken. The experts believe that it is likely to be something about censorship, and Skype should confess and conform. Neither the government nor the CITC said when the service has to fix the situation or what measure will be applied if it fails. As for CITC, it claims to be acting to protect the country from any negative aspects which could harm the public interest.

It seems that Saudi Arabia keeps making a push for greater control over cyberspace, while Internet and smartphone usage soars. The independent observers believe that the local authorities are just worried that people might mix and talk, which can be a dangerous thing if you live in a monarchy. Indeed, if people start communicating with each other they might accidentally become informed and begin wondering why in the Earth they are living in monarchy and why everyone in the country is ruled by people getting the job by shagging.

A few days ago the English-language Arab News Daily suggested that the country may try to end anonymity for Twitter users residing in Saudi Arabia by restricting access to the website to people registering their IDs on the service. It is unclear how the situation ends for Skype and other social communication services, but some of the companies may want to reconsider the way they do business in Saudi Arabia.

Windows Blue Leaked Online

New OS leaks are quite a common thing – in most cases, they are just the spark to ignite the users’ anticipation – a kind of a quick peek at what Microsoft is working on.

Within the last years, the software giant has been from time to time openly bothered by the numerous leaks of its products. Sometimes, Microsoft itself has been suspected at using leaks to promote its software, and today the new “release” concerns the new OS, Windows Blue, which since last week can be found on file-sharing portals.
It seems that the 2.63GB ISO file is believed to have been released by one of the company’s French service partners. That’s what this leaked version reveals: nowadays users of Windows 8 are able to access the File Recovery feature, though it takes a little digging to find it. The option can be found in the Control Panel under “All Control Panel Items” and lets users to back up their files to an external drive. This feature is expected to be removed from the next release.
Another novation is said to be Microsoft pushing most of the PC settings controls from the desktop to the new Modern UI overlay, including settings for SkyDrive, Network, Time & Language, Apps, Accounts, Update and Recovery. As you can see, the desktop is being eased out going forward.
In addition, the leaked update also showed a handful of new application, such as Alarms, Movie Moments, Calculator, and Sound Recorder. Moreover, you can also find a new updated Snap mode which allows opening two apps side by side, each taking half the screen, while currently each takes up 75% of the screen. Snap mode may even accommodate up to 4 apps at a time.
The leak revealed the ability of Windows to manipulate the size and arrangement of tiles, and to name Start Screen groups without having to switch to semantic zoom mode. This build even offers users the ability to customize the desktop’s background and color schemes right from the blocky Modern UI. Finally, the OS carries a functional copy of Internet Explorer included in the leaked ISO, but at the moment there’s no information about the updates to the browser. Hopefully, the Internet browser will be improved.
Microsoft is expected to make Windows Blue available in a few months as a preview. The official release is scheduled for the end of 2013.

BitCoin’s Exchange Rate Doubled

The new virtual currency, BitCoin, is seen to be creating a lot of buzz over the past months. At the moment, BitCoin can easily amaze you with its $1 billion milestone surpassing. Just a few days ago, its exchange rate for the currency beat $92, while only a few weeks ago it was $49 worth. Such a huge increase sounds really insane.

Frankly speaking, Bitcoin supporters and financial experts expected neither the currency’s explosion in value nor its sudden plunge over at some point.
Nevertheless, the increase in question can’t be clearly explained, because the number of services that use BitCoin as a payment currency has increased recently as well. Aside from WordPress, Mega, and Reddit, there were other names which have already adopted the new currency. According to statistics, there is 11 million BitCoins in circulation at the moment.
Financial experts believe that another key factor in the currency’s rise to “fame” has something to do with the lack of restrictions and control from the government. For instance, you might have heard from the news that a large number of citizens of Cyprus had had their bank accounts blocked and only allowed to withdraw $300 per day. These people have turned their attention to BitCoin in which they saw a currency having a huge potential of being safe from the reach of the authorities.
Undoubtedly, BitCoin has made a statement to be regarded serious with its billion dollar milestone hit. However, its viability to large investors is yet to be established. For example, Michael Kagan, Senior Portfolio Manager at Clearbridge Investments, says that he isn’t likely to feel safe when being involved with the currency vulnerable to being hacked or manipulated, without recompense if it is.
Statistics published by BitPay, which is considered as one of the most popular Bitcoin payment processors, revealed that in March 2013 the company processed $2 million worth of BitCoin transactions, which equals to 66% of all the transactions it managed in 2012. Daily BitCoin transactions have increased from about 200,000 BitCoins to a total of 50% higher.