EU member states laid aside the advice of their own legal experts in cutting MEPs out of talks on a new bank data deal with the US. The legal services of the EU council (the member states’ secretariat in Brussels) in July put forward a confidential paper saying that the European Parliament should have co-legislative…
Student sues Amazon.com over deleted homework
A class action lawsuit filed today takes Amazon.com to task after the company deleted George Orwell books from customers Kindles. According to the lawsuit, Amazon.com deleted these books after claiming that it had mistakenly sold them without permission from the copyright owner. After a barrage of criticism from customers, the media, and public interest organizations,…
Cops run background check on Obama, placed on leave
Two DeKalb County police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after an investigation revealed they ran a background check on President Barack Obama. A representative for the DeKalb County CEO’s office identified the officers as Ryan White and C.M. Route. Officials said Obama’s name was typed into a computer inside a DeKalb County…
Google responds to Los Angeles flap
Jaikumar Vijayan has a great follow-up piece about Los Angeles’ plan to move some of the city’s records and services to the cloud. As reported previously, the city’s police department and privacy advocates have raised concerns about the proposal… Google Inc. this week came swinging at critics who have cited privacy and security concerns in…