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Microsoft's Patriot Act admission has the EU up in arms
Last week, Microsoft quietly confirmed that cloud data stored on its European servers can still be handed over to American investigators -- and the EU is none too pleased about it. As it turns out, the revelation has shed new light on a fundamental conflict between US law and the EU's Data Protection Directive -- an edict requiring that companies notify consumers whenever sharing their personal information. The bi-lateral Safe Harbor agreement calls for similarly strict protocol, but under the Patriot Act (which trumps all else), companies like Microsoft could be forced to hand over private data without informing targeted individuals. In response, some members of the European Parliament are calling upon legislators to take action and to implement safeguards that can't be overridden by third-party governments. It remains to be seen whether or not this leads to any new laws or transatlantic tensions, but if we've learned anything, it's that Europeans take their clouds very seriously.
EU Written Declaration 29 wants you to think of the children, hand over all your search results
Oh boy, the EU's back on the crusade path again. This time, the Brussels brain trust has decided it will end pedophilia, child pornography, and other miscreant activities by simply and easily recording everyone's search results. Because, as we all know, Google searches are the central cog by which the seedy underworld operates. Here's how Declaration 29 sees it: Asks the Council and the Commission to implement Directive 2006/24/EC and extend it to search engines in order to tackle online child pornography and sex offending rapidly and effectively. Directive 2006/24/EC is also known as the Data Retention Directive, and permits (nay, compels) states to keep track of all electronic communications, including phone calls, emails and browsing sessions. Describing the stupefying invasion of privacy that its expansion represents as an "early warning system," the European Parliament is currently collecting signatures from MEPs and is nearing the majority it requires to adopt the Declaration. Guess when Google does it, it's a horrible infraction of human rights, but when the EU does it, it's some noble life-saving endeavor. Unsurprisingly, not everyone is convinced that sifting through people's search results will produce concrete crime-reducing results, and Swedish Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom puts together a very good explanation of what Written Declaration 29 entails and why it's such a bad idea. Give it a read, won't ya?
EU roaming drama continues, tentative pricing agreement reached
In Europe? Want cheaper international roaming? Of course you do -- if you don't you're either a carrier or a sick puppy -- and it looks like you just might get your wish. Members of the European Parliament have agreed in principle to reducing the caps on international voice, text, and data roaming to €0.43 per outgoing minute, €0.19 per incoming minute, €0.11 each, and €1.00 per MB wholesale, respectively, on July 1 of this year. Voice minutes further reduce to €0.39 / €0.15 and €0.35 / €0.11 on July 1 of 2010 and 2011, while data ends up as low as €0.50 per MB in two years from now. Furthermore, carriers will be required by law to warn customers when they get close to hitting 50 worth of data roaming, at which point they'll need to consciously agree to bust the cap -- by SMS, for example -- otherwise they'll automatically be cut off to prevent insane, unexpected bills. If all goes according to plan, the proposal will be brought to a full vote next month.
