Deleting personal information online is costly and time-consuming for web companies. Those difficulties are now set to be magnified in Europe for Google, Microsoft and others.
The European Union's (EU) top court this week ruled that citizens have a "right to be forgotten" online, meaning people may ask search engine owners to remove personal information and request that a court or data-protection authority step in if a company doesn't comply.
The EU decision does not spell out what types of information must be removed and does not provide exemptions for data that is true or from a reputable source.
All of that is set to create new headaches for web companies, which have businesses based on handling tremendous amounts of data that often aren't touched by humans. The ruling opens the way for European users to flood the firms with web takedown requests, adding costs and time to what they already do in content removal. Many of the companies already deal with compliance for different data laws in various countries, subjecting requests to shed content to thorough legal analyses before making the information unavailable.
"It's just such a mind-bogglingly impossible decision," said Fred Cate, distinguished professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. "Courts aren't responsible for the practical implications of rulings but this really staggers the imagination."
Widespread effect
The EU decision applies to search engines, which means it will affect Google, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo.
Google and others may now have to consider charging a fee for European users to cover the costs of staff to comb through requests, Cate said. Or they may try to get by with being seen to make a good faith effort to comply, even though any of the 28 European nations governed by the ruling or any zealous local prosecutor could then take a company on for failing to do enough, he said.
"They'd have to hire an army of compliance officers," said Justin Brookman, director of the Centre for Democracy and Technology's Project on Consumer Privacy. That may make it difficult for companies to "scalably compete online", he said.
The EU decision illustrates how Europe and the US are diverging on how stringently they approach privacy. That has gathered steam since last year, following Edward Snowden's revelations of the electronic spying practices of the US National Security Agency.
Bitter pill
Google has already received requests to remove objectionable personal information from its search engine after this week's ruling, a source said.
The company said it was reviewing the EU court's decision, with spokeswoman Leslie Miller calling it a "disappointing ruling for search engines and online publishers in general".
At its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, chief legal officer David Drummond said the ruling "went too far". He added that the EU court "didn't consider adequately the impact on free expression, which is absolutely a human right".
Other internet companies said they have also started studying the ruling and its implications.
"Since our founding almost 20 years ago, we've supported an open and free internet, not one shaded by censorship," Yahoo spokeswoman Sarah Meron said. "We're now carefully reviewing the European Court of Justice's decision to assess the impact for our business and for our users."
Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans declined to comment. Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler and Facebook spokeswoman Genevieve Grdina did not respond to requests for comment.
Balance
The EU court said in a statement that it sought a balance between "the legitimate interest of internet users potentially interested in having access to that information" and privacy rights.
If used in limited cases, "it's probably a positive move that people have their privacy protected," said Danny Sullivan, founding editor of industry website SearchEngineLand.com. "However, there's a real concern if this turns out to be abused, if done to prevent easy access to legitimate public records."
The EU restrictions are unlikely to help privacy advocates in US courts, said Danny O'Brien, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That's because while EU countries rely on a wide-ranging law that covers all personal data processing, the US has a patchwork of privacy laws, he said. Europeans turn to a privacy regulator to investigate violations, while US privacy violations are enforced through private lawsuits and occasionally the Federal Trade Commission, he said.
Australia
The Australian Law Reform Commission recently recommended to the federal government that individuals be given the "right to be deleted" online.
If the recommendation is adopted, this would give people the power to compel organisations to delete or de-identify information held about them.
But unlike a recent EU proposal separate to Tuesday's court ruling, it would only apply to posts made by a person and not information posted by others.
President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties Stephen Blanks said he supported the right to be forgotten online.
"I think people view information about themselves as something they want to be able to control," he said at a recent seminar hosted by the NSW Law Society.
"I think people resent the idea that Facebook and other social media organisations claim the right contractually to be able to retain information forever."
Google's dealings
Google's search results are based on algorithms, which don't require the interference of humans. Yet the company over time has had to put employees more directly into the work of sorting through content and data as requests to remove online information have multiplied.
The company's legal team now deals with thousands of government requests every year concerning online data. In the first half of 2013, the number of government requests to remove content from its services rose by more than two thirds to almost 4000 from the prior six months, according to Google's transparency report at the time.
The requests came from countries including France, Spain and Italy and also from a variety of sources, including court orders and the police, according to Google. The biggest complaints are for defamation, privacy and security.
In 2012, the company received requests from governments including the ones in Turkey and Malaysia to get rid of videos on its YouTube site containing clips of the movie Innocence of Muslims. The video depicts the Prophet Mohammed as a womaniser and shows a fictional attack by Muslims on a Christian family.
German requests
Google doesn't always oblige the inquirers. In Germany, the company complied with 74 per cent of court requests during the first half of 2013, according to Google. In France, it was 58 per cent.
The company also sometimes makes a statement about what it will or won't show in its search results. In 2010, Google pulled its service from China after refusing to censor search results.
Google has also faced calls to remove content in the US. Its YouTube site has long said it will remove videos that infringe copyright issues. In March, Google and Viacom settled Viacom's $US1 billion lawsuit claiming YouTube violated copyrights by letting users post video clips from television shows without authorisation.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus appears to have jumped from one human to another for the first time in United States.
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| This undated file electron microscope image made available by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - Rocky Mountain Laboratories shows novel coronavirus particles, also known as the MERS virus, colorized in yellow. |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that an Illinois man has preliminarily tested positive for the MERS antibodies after he had contact with an Indiana man who contracted the virus abroad.
NPR's Joe Neel, who listened in on a CDC conference call, tells us:
"This marks the first known transmission of the MERS virus in the U.S. and the third known case of MERS infection in the country.
"In early May, the man had two meetings with an Indiana man on business who is believed to be the first U.S. case and had extensive and close face to face contact. That man worked in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, where more than 500 people have been hospitalized with MERS."
The CDC says it will continue to monitor the situation, but is not making any changes to its recommendations to the public, travelers and healthcare providers.
Our friends at Shots put together a post . Here are a couple of key questions they answered:
"What is it? Middle East respiratory syndrome, a new and potentially fatally virus from the same family as the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS).
"Who's been diagnosed: The first cases were diagnosed in 2012 in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. As of May 2014, there have been more than 490 MERS diagnoses (and over 140 deaths) in Saudi Arabia. Dozens more cases have been found throughout the Middle East and in seven other countries, with two in the U.S., and cases also in France, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Tunisia and the U.K. In both the United States and the U.K, patients had been in the Middle E
"Why now? Unclear. In April, officials saw a of MERS cases; many involved human-to-human transmission. This rise in numbers could just be because we're more aware of the illness and are better at detecting the virus."
Solange deletes Beyonce photos from Instagram.
Solange has reportedly deleted photos of herself with sister Beyonce from her Instagram account a day after a video, in which the singer appeared to attack her brother-in-law Jay Z in an elevator, surfaced online.
The couple and the 27 year old hit the headlines on Monday when surveillance video from an elevator at the Standard Hotel appeared to show Solange slapping and kicking the 99 Problems hitmaker, as Beyonce watched and then stepped between her sister and her husband.
The Knowles sisters and Jay Z have yet to comment about the altercation, but on Tuesday, Solange removed all but one of her family snapshots with her big sister from Instagram.
In the remaining picture from over a year ago, the sisters are photographed with a friend, with the caption reading, "Girls moment."
The reason for the removal of the pictures remains unclear, but reports indicate the sisters attended former Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland's rumoured wedding in Costa Rica on Friday.
Meanwhile, Jay Z and Beyonce put on a united front on Monday at a basketball playoff game between the Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets, during which they were snapped laughing and embracing each other.
Solange has reportedly deleted photos of herself with sister Beyonce from her Instagram account a day after a video, in which the singer appeared to attack her brother-in-law Jay Z in an elevator, surfaced online.
The couple and the 27 year old hit the headlines on Monday when surveillance video from an elevator at the Standard Hotel appeared to show Solange slapping and kicking the 99 Problems hitmaker, as Beyonce watched and then stepped between her sister and her husband.
The Knowles sisters and Jay Z have yet to comment about the altercation, but on Tuesday, Solange removed all but one of her family snapshots with her big sister from Instagram.
In the remaining picture from over a year ago, the sisters are photographed with a friend, with the caption reading, "Girls moment."
The reason for the removal of the pictures remains unclear, but reports indicate the sisters attended former Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland's rumoured wedding in Costa Rica on Friday.
Meanwhile, Jay Z and Beyonce put on a united front on Monday at a basketball playoff game between the Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets, during which they were snapped laughing and embracing each other.
Miss Beazley, a Scottish terrier who was a frequent companion to George W. Bush and his wife, Laura in their White House years, was "put to rest after a battle with lymphoma," the former president said on Saturday.
"She was a source of joy during our time in Washington and in Dallas," Bush said in a statement issued from his Dallas home.
Miss Beazley and the Bushes' first Scottish terrier, Barney, were highly visible pets at the Bush White House and were featured in a White House Christmas video in 2005 called "A Very Beazley Christmas."
"She was a close companion to her blood relative, Barney. And even though he received all the attention, Beazley never held a grudge against him. She was a guardian to our cats, Bob and Bernadette, who - like Laura and I -- will miss her," Bush said.
Bush gave Miss Beazley as a puppy to Laura on her birthday in 2005.
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| US President Bush's dog Miss Beazley awaits the president's arrival to the White House |
"She was a source of joy during our time in Washington and in Dallas," Bush said in a statement issued from his Dallas home.
Miss Beazley and the Bushes' first Scottish terrier, Barney, were highly visible pets at the Bush White House and were featured in a White House Christmas video in 2005 called "A Very Beazley Christmas."
"She was a close companion to her blood relative, Barney. And even though he received all the attention, Beazley never held a grudge against him. She was a guardian to our cats, Bob and Bernadette, who - like Laura and I -- will miss her," Bush said.
Bush gave Miss Beazley as a puppy to Laura on her birthday in 2005.
Perdigón, de 35 años y maestra en antropología social, es una apasionada del tema. Ha rascado las raíces de la Santa Muerte en archivos e iconografía de la Colonia y ha viajado a diversos estados del país y a España, Italia y Chile. Su conocimiento la hace rechazar versiones como la del escritor Homero Aridjis, que en su novela Santa Muerte refiere un sincretismo prehispánico y colonial.
Ella –quien asesora al padre David Romo, del Santuario Nacional de la Santa Muerte– se enfada por la forma en que, por ignorancia, el culto ha sido presentado en algunos medios de comunicación como hermanado con la santería o lo satánico, cuando se trata de una expresión religiosa “popular” que ha crecido por la desesperación y el miedo con el que vive la gente en la ciudad de México.
Texto: Laura Castellanos
Fotografías: José Carlo González
De la inquietud surge la pregunta: “¿por qué luego de 100 años de existencia y de resultados clínicos indiscutibles, el sicoanálisis es tan violentamente atacado en la actualidad? Prueba de ello es el libro de Michael Onfray recién editado en español por Taurus, titulado El ocaso de un ídolo. La historiadora y sicoanalista Elizabeth Roudinesco contesta dicho libro con un folleto-libro llamado ¿Por qué tanto odio?, y se contesta: porque el sicoanálisis irrumpió en la vida íntima de los seres humanos, la sexualidad, los problemas familiares, la crítica de los sistemas dictatoriales y la religión y, de contra, por su imposibilidad para ser verificado.
Así, Roudinesco hace la crítica de no ser ciencia: el principio de la historia de las ciencias según el cual ninguna norma debe esencializarse en relación con una patología, ya que los fenómenos patológicos son siempre variaciones cuantitativas de fenómenos normales. Para Onfray, la relación entre lo normal y lo patológico la piensa en dirección del bien y del mal. De un lado el paraíso de la norma (el dios solar, los pacifistas, los hedonistas), por el otro, el infierno de la patología (locos, perversos, monstruos); para él, el sicoanálisis no distingue al verdugo de la víctima, porque en el sicoanálisis todo se vale: el enfermo, el hombre normal, el loco, el siquiatra, el pedófilo, el buen padre. No es ciencia, es otra religión dictatorial, dice.Y Roudinesco señala: Freud, médico, abandona el modelo neurológico, rompe con los mitos cerebrales. Fundó el sicoanálisis a partir de otro razonamiento diferente al de las ciencias naturales. El hombre no es sólo neurona: está hecho por mitos, fantasmas, cultura. Puso la tragedia griega, Sófocles: Edipo. Pero también la conciencia culpable de Hamlet en el corazón de la subjetividad. El sicoanálisis es una ciencia humana, como la antropología, no una rama de la neurología, y si se biologizan las ciencias humanas caemos en el oscurantismo, el ocultismo, descubriendo causalidades donde no las hay.
Elizabeth Roudinesco (sicoanalista e historiadora del sicoanálisis) junto con Jacques Derrida (filósofo de la deconstrucción) dialogan, entre muchos otros temas cruciales en la actualidad, sobre el asunto de la libertad, la ciencia y el cientificismo.
Para Roudinesco, la cuestión del cientificismo contemporáneo hay que entenderla como
una ideología surgida del discurso científico y ligada al progreso real de la ciencia y las ciencias, que pretende reducir todos los comportamientos humanos a procesos fisiológicos verificables experimentalmente. Ante tal perspectiva existe una equiparación de lo humano con la máquina, y con ello una desvalorización de las determinaciones inconscientes de la conducta humana. Por su parte, Jacques Derrida puntualiza que el cientificismo no es la ciencia. Encuentra que los hombres y mujeres de ciencia se reconocen en el hecho de que nunca, o casi nunca, son cientificistas.
Para el filósofo hay una claridad meridiana al respecto:
Si el cientificismo consiste en extender ilegítimamente el campo de un saber científico o en dar a los teoremas científicos un estatus filosófico o metafísico que no es el suyo, comienza allí donde se detiene la ciencia y donde se exporta un teorema más allá de su campo de pertinencia. Es decir,
el cientificismo desfigura lo que tiene de más respetable la ciencia.
Derrida denuncia, y con justa razón, que debemos ser muy cautelosos y no caer en la simplificación y el reduccionismo de interpretar como actos mecánicos el acto de pensar, el comportamiento humano y el funcionamiento del siquismo. Cosa en la que lamentablemente han caído algunas corrientes sicoanalíticas. No se trata, según Derrida, de descalificar los avances tecnológicos, sino de entender la complejidad de la interacción del hombre con la máquina. Y he aquí donde el asunto se enlaza con el tema de la libertad.
En este punto, Derrida apunta a lo incalculable, a lo no predecidle, a lo que rebasa o excede, y es así como quizás podría hablarse de libertad. Lo incalculable, el acontecimiento imprevisible tiene que ver con el otro, “el otro responde siempre, por definición, en el nombre y la figura de lo incalculable. Ninguna investigación científica, por exhaustiva que sea, puede dar cuenta del encuentro del otro.
El casino Royale empezó a operar en septiembre de 2007, cuando el alcalde de Monterrey era Adalberto Madero Quiroga, militante panista. De acuerdo con una denuncia hecha en su momento por Ernesto Cerda Serna y Blanca Rocío Carranza, dirigentes del Partido Nueva Alianza en Nuevo León, los dueños del sitio eran primos del ex presidente municipal.
Los inconformes señalaron que el centro de diversión era administrado por Cymsa Corporation, en sociedad con Atracciones y Emociones Vallarta SA de CV, a cuyo consejo de administración pertenecen Rodrigo Madero Covarrubias, José Francisco Madero Dávila y Ramón Agustín Madero Dávila, primosdel ex alcalde Adalberto Madero, lo cual calificaron de
trafico de influencias.
Según los denunciantes, el gobierno municipal autorizó el funcionamiento del casino sin que éste contará con el permiso que debe otorgar Gobernación.
El actual alcalde de Monterrey, Fernando Larrazabal Bretón, indicó ayer que el 4 de mayo de este año había clausurado el establecimiento porque era ampliado sin el permiso correspondiente. Los dueños del centro de apuestas interpusieron un recurso ante el Tribunal de lo Contencioso y Administrativo, el cual ordenó retirar los sellos de clausura el 31 del mismo mes.
El gobernador Rodrigo Medina Cruz se refirió ayer a la proliferación de casinos en la entidad y reprochó a Gobernación el desorden con que se manejan esos establecimientos. Llamó a la dependencia a poner orden y a deslindar responsabilidades.
El gobernador Rodrigo Medina Cruz se refirió ayer a la proliferación de casinos en la entidad y reprochó a Gobernación el desorden con que se manejan esos establecimientos. Llamó a la dependencia a poner orden y a deslindar responsabilidades.
