FT: Google break-up plan emerges from Brussels
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/617568ea-71a1-11e4-9048-00144feabdc0.html November 21, 2014 6:23 pm Google break-up plan emerges from Brussels Henry Mance, Alex Barker and Murad Ahmed The European parliament is poised to call for a break-up of Google, in one of the most brazen assaults so far on the technology group's power. The gambit increases the political pressure on the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to take a tougher line on Google, either in its antitrust investigation into the company or through the introduction of laws to curb its reach. FirstFT is our new essential daily email briefing of the best stories from across the web A draft motion seen by the Financial Times says that "unbundling [of] search engines from other commercial services" should be considered as a potential solution to Google's dominance. It has the backing of the parliament's two main political blocs, the European People's Party and the Socialists. A vote to effectively single out a big US company for censure is extremely rare in the European parliament and is in part a reflection of how Germany's politicians have turned against Google this year. German centre-right and centre-left politicians are the dominant force in the legislature and German corporate champions, from media groups to telecoms, are among the most vocal of Google's critics. Since his nomination to be the EU's digital commissioner, Germany's G??nther Oettinger has suggested hitting Google with a levy for displaying copyright-protected material; has raised the idea of forcing its search results to be neutral; and voiced concerns about its provision of software for cars. Google has become a lightning rod for European concerns over Silicon Valley, with consumers, regulators and politicians assailing the company over issues ranging from its commercial dominance to its privacy policy. It has reluctantly accepted the European Court of Justice's ruling on the right to be forgotten, which requires it to consider requests not to index certain links about people's past. The European parliament has no formal power to split up companies, but has increasing influence on the commission, which initiates all EU legislation. The commission has been investigating concerns over Google's dominance of online search for five years, with critics arguing that the company's rankings favour its own services, hitting its rivals' profits. "Unbundling cannot be excluded," said Andreas Schwab, a German MEP who is one of the motion's backers. Margrethe Vestager, the incoming European competition commissioner, has indicated that she will listen to Google and various complainants before deciding on how to move forward with the antitrust inquiry into the company. Ramon Tremosa, a Spanish MEP who is sponsoring the motion, said it was necessary to consider unbundling as a long-term solution, because the commission could not "ask the secret of [Google's] algorithm". Google declined to comment. However, executives at the company are understood to be furious at the political nature of the motion and only became aware of the document in the past couple of days, after an MEP contacted Google for advice on its meaning. One technology industry source with knowledge of the motion also called it a "politically-motivated campaign to do something that is a regulatory matter". He added: "These guys are calling for the break-up of Google. That is not in proportion to the degree of concern articulated by the commission during its investigation." The draft resolution's final text will be agreed early next week, ahead of a vote, which is expected on Thursday. # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: end-to-end encryption for the masses
On 11/20/2014 03:11 AM, nettime's_enigma wrote: > Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:12:27 -0500 > From: Dmytri Kleiner > Subject: Re: end-to-end encryption for the masses > > OK, after I agree to run google play store on my phone along with the > proprietary whatsapp , I also give my phone number, and the phone number > of all my contacts to prismbook, and also let them know exactly who I'm > chatting with and exactly when, and in return they'll OTR encrypt my > chat messages for me. I see what you did there facebook. Hooray privacy! Exactly, it seems to highlight that what is really valuable for a company like Facebook is only the meta data. It's all about network patterns and their real-time dynamics. Thus, access to the data, i.e. the content of the messages, is no longer necessary in their current business model. Having users encrypt it, it is no loss at all, rather its great advertisement creating an inadequate sense of privacy. Felix -- | http://felix.openflows.com |OPEN PGP: 056C E7D3 9B25 CAE1 336D 6D2F 0BBB 5B95 0C9F F2AC # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: 'fuck europe!' then what?
On the other hand Europe is fine. It is pretty true that it makes very good law for consumers. It is a good idea to have some sort of rules all over the place. That all consumers can count on. I completely disagree. Europe make very bad laws for consumers, because this laws are made by thousand technocrats directed by 20 000 lobbyists and not by citizens, and because capitalist system is deeply included in the European constitution. Two examples: -before European laws on free competition, some countries like France used to have very good public services, in many different sectors of the society, with workers doing very good work. All has been exploded, public services has been dismantled, with a massive use of subcontractors employing interim workers, who don't care about nothing. Many services have disapeared. A huge regression for consumers. This participate to the feeling of depression wich pushes the voters to the extremes. -Another example about food: the European organic rules for food products, to have the European "organic" label, allows 5% of non-organic components in productsyou can easily understand what it means for the food industry. I could describe thousands European laws wich are regressions for consumers compared to what was existing before Europe laws. So, I correct your sentence: Europe make very bad laws for consumers, but very good laws for transnational companies. JN # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: 'fuck europe!' then what?
Am 20/11/14 12:42, schrieb Alex Foti: << Europe is not a good sell. Not in Western Europe, not in Eastern Europe, and most particularly on the left, where accusations of eurocentrism and denunciations of the arbitrary political notion of "Europe" (where does it end? when did it start?) abound. The position, best argued by Streeck, that only by returning to the nation-state what's left of the left can hope to shelter citizens from the inequalities of global financial capitalism, seems to me nostalgic of the fordist age of (patriarchal and paternalist) social democracy. >> The nation is the place where we give us our own law. That is not applicable in other countries. On the other hand Europe is fine. It is pretty true that it makes very good law for consumers. It is a good idea to have some sort of rules all over the place. That all consumers can count on. And what is the EU? A group of nation states with some common rules. Not all are easy, so what? And I would say that the EU is even not so bad in the Ukraine crisis if you forget the language and concentrate on what it is really asking for. We should all come down. Best, H. # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: 'fuck europe!' then what?
In 1900 Europe contained 25% of the world's population, in 2100 it is forecast o be 6%. Europe is the main and permanent loser in this world crisis. Talk of reversion to the nation-state is just one symptom of that. http://thememorybank.co.uk/2014/05/06/europe-is-the-main-and-permanent-loser-in-this-world-crisis/ Keith On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Alex Foti wrote: > is the european question the analog of the habsburg question or the ottoman > question in the 19th century? i don't think so, but there's certainly room > for the belief that the 'sick man of europe' is europe itselft, or rather > the EU. <...> # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
