Britons seek 'right to be forgotten'

12 October 2014 Last updated at 06:18

One in 10 requests for web links to be removed from search results under European "right to be forgotten" laws have come from the UK, Google has said.

Google said it had removed 498,737 links from search results since May this year - including 63,616 pages following requests from the UK.

It said 18,304 requests were made in the UK, the third highest in the EU.

It follows a European Court of Justice ruling that links to irrelevant and outdated data can be erased on request.

The ruling sparked criticisms over censorship of material.

According to data released on its website, Google removed 35% - or 18,459 - of unwanted links to web pages following requests from the UK.

A right to be forgotten?

• In 2012, the European Commission published plans for a "right to be forgotten" law, allowing people to request that data about themselves to be deleted
• Online service providers would have to comply unless they had "legitimate" reason to do otherwise
• The plans are part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the commission's 1995 Data Protection Directive
• UK's Ministry of Justice claims that the law "raises unrealistic and unfair expectations"
• Some tech firms have expressed concern about the reach of the bill

'Embarrassing content'

As part of a transparency report, Google also provided examples of the sorts of requests it had received, along with the search engine's decision.

It said it had turned down requests from a UK public official who wanted a link to a student organisation's petition demanding his removal taken down.

Google also rejected the request of a former clergyman from the UK who asked for two links to articles about an investigation into sexual abuse accusations about him to be removed.

It said a UK "media professional" had requested the removal of four links to articles reporting on "embarrassing content he posted to the internet", a request the search engine also turned down.

A doctor had requested more than 50 links to newspaper articles about a botched procedure be removed, it said.

Google said "three pages that contained personal information about the doctor but did not mention the procedure have been removed from search results for his name", but "the rest of the links to reports on the incident remain in search results".

It said a news summary of a man who was convicted at a magistrates' court had been removed as, under the UK Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, his conviction had been spent.

Facebook, with 3,353 links removed across Europe, and YouTube, with 2,392 URLs deleted, were among the sites most affected.

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'Revenge porn' illegal under new law

13 October 2014 Last updated at 12:23

People who post so-called "revenge porn" pictures and videos on the internet could face two years in jail under a new law.

The new Criminal Justice and Courts Bill will have an amendment dealing specifically with the practice.

"We want those who fall victim to this type of disgusting behaviour to know that we are on their side," said Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Physical distribution of images will also be covered.

"The fact that there are individuals who are cruelly distributing intimate pictures of their former partners without their consent is almost beyond belief," Mr Grayling said.

He said authorities would do "everything we can to bring offenders to justice".

"That is why we will change the law and make it absolutely clear to those who act in this way that they could face prison."

Continue reading the main story

Photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public"

End Quote Definition of 'revenge porn' Ministry of Justice

The amendment will cover images sent on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. It will also include those sent by text message.

"This type of behaviour can be extremely distressing for its victims causing them significant psychological harm," said Adam Pemberton, assistant chief executive for charity Victim Support.

"We are pleased that people who commit these gross violations of privacy will now face prosecution, and victims of revenge porn know they have the full backing of the law."

'Never acceptable'

Victims of revenge porn have found it difficult to have pictures removed from the internet.

Many sites where the images are hosted are based outside the UK, and requests to remove content are often ignored.

In some cases, asking for removal results in more attention being brought to the images.

According to information from eight police forces in England and Wales which kept data on this issue, there were 149 allegations of revenge porn made in the past two and a half years.

The vast majority of victims were women - but only six incidents resulted in police action.

Without specific legislation, some have sought legal workarounds to have images taken down - most commonly the use of copyright law.

If an intimate picture has been taken as a "selfie", the image's copyright belongs to the taker.

The new law seeks to give a stronger option - classing revenge porn as "photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public".

Minister for Women and Equality Nicky Morgan said: "Circulating intimate photos of an individual without their consent is never acceptable. People are entitled to expect a reasonable level of respect and privacy.

"It is right that those who do circulate these images are held to account, and that we educate young people to the hurt that can be caused by breaking this trust."

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Meerkat-cam uses TV white space

10 October 2014 Last updated at 00:04

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WATCH: Rory Cellan-Jones discovers how the experiment works

The public will be able to find out what meerkats, otters and giant tortoises, housed at London Zoo, get up to when the visitors have left, thanks to new wireless technology.

London Zoo is working with UK regulator Ofcom to test so-called TV White Space (TVWS) technology.

TVWS uses gaps in the spectrum assigned for television transmissions.

Videos of the animals will be streamed to YouTube 24 hours a day.

TVWS uses sections of spectrum either left intentionally blank to act as a buffer between TV signals or space left behind when services went digital.

Compared with other forms of wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and wi-fi, the radio waves can travel longer distances and also travel more easily through walls.

The trials are intended to test white space-enabled devices as well as identify what spectrum is available and the processes needed to minimise the risk of interference.

It will be used in other projects, including one led by the Oxford Flood Network, a citizen-built wireless sensor network which provides early flood warnings.

TVWS has also been earmarked as a way of providing broadband at sea.

It will be tested on ferries travelling to the Orkney Islands.

Meerkat-cam

At London Zoo, the trial dubbed, Whitespaces for Wildlife, will see cameras and radios installed in the enclosures of meerkats, giant tortoises and otters.

Footage will be wirelessly transmitted to YouTube using Google's spectrum database to ensure no interference with existing channels.

As well as allowing members of the public to check out what the animals get up to 24 hours a day, it will play a more serious role.

"Remote monitoring of wildlife is a vital conservation tool, from helping us to better understand species behaviour," said Whitespaces for Wildlife project co-ordinator Louise Hartley.

"The prototype systems at ZSL London Zoo are already demonstrating that they can transmit high definition video over long distances, confirming their invaluable potential to use wireless connectivity to transform ZSL's (Zoological Society of London) worldwide conservation work."

The technology could be used in areas of the world where poaching and illegal logging are affecting wildlife populations, she added.

Internet of things

The UK is leading Europe in the use of TVWS technology.

Philip Marnick, Ofcom's head of the Spectrum Policy Group said: "In a world where consumers' demand for data services is experiencing huge growth, it is essential we find the most efficient ways to share the airwaves."

It is expected to be commercially available in the UK from next year.

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Only 100 cybercrime brains worldwide

10 October 2014 Last updated at 12:30

There are only "around 100" cybercriminal kingpins behind global cybercrime, according to the head of Europol's Cybercrime Centre.

Speaking to the BBC's Tech Tent radio show, Troels Oerting said that law enforcers needed to target the "rather limited group of good programmers".

"We roughly know who they are. If we can take them out of the equation then the rest will fall down," he said.

Although, he added, fighting cybercrime remained an uphill battle.

"This is not a static number, it will increase unfortunately," he said.

"We can still cope but the criminals have more resources and they do not have obstacles. They are driven by greed and profit and they produce malware at a speed that we have difficulties catching up with."

The biggest issue facing cybercrime fighters at the moment was the fact that it was borderless, he told the BBC.

"Criminals no longer come to our countries, they commit their crimes from a distance and because of this I cannot use the normal tools to catch them.

"I have to work with countries I am not used to working with and that scares me a bit," he said

The majority of the cybercrime "kingpins" were located in the Russian-speaking world, he said.

Relationships with Russian law enforcers have not always been good but were "improving". He revealed that he had recently been on a trip to Moscow to discuss four big cybercrime cases and was hopeful that arrests and jail sentences would follow.

Mr Oerting described how Russian-speaking criminal gangs were creating and testing malware and then selling it as a service in online forums.

"Then it is downloaded by all kinds of criminals, from Eastern Europe, Europe, Africa and America," he said.

This commercialisation of cybercrime is making his job harder.

"It is so easy to be a cybercriminal. You don't have to be a cyber-expert because you just download the programs that you want to use."

Identity theft

On the issue of what consumers should be worried about, he said: "What I think you should be afraid of is the stealing of your private, sensitive information - your inbox credentials, your Facebook account. If they know a bit about you they can reset your Google accounts, your Apple accounts. Then they simply take over your life," he said.

He also spoke about how the job of containing the cybercrime threat was getting harder as the internet acquired more users and widened its reach. The so-called internet of things - where previously dumb objects are connected to the network - "widens the attack surface a bit", he said.

And he revealed how the Edward Snowden revelations, which exposed mass government surveillance programmes, had played a part in hampering law enforcement's efforts to contain cybercrime.

"There is confusion among the good guys on the internet between anonymity and privacy. I don't think they are the same. I think that you have right to privacy but that doesn't mean that you have the right to anonymity," he said.

The increasing trend towards greater encryption of online communications is not acceptable, he said.

"Imagine in the physical world if you were not able to open the trunk of a car if you had a suspicion that there were weapons or drugs inside... we would never accept this.

"I think that should also count for the digital world. I hate to talk about backdoors but there has to be a possibility for law enforcement, if they are authorised, to look inside at what you are hiding in your online world."

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Microsoft will 'respect' Minecraft

10 October 2014 Last updated at 10:57

The boss of Minecraft-maker Mojang has reassured fans worried about what will happen when Microsoft takes over.

A $2.5bn (£1.5bn) deal that will see Microsoft acquire Mojang was announced in mid-September.

But Vu Bui, chief operating officer of Mojang, said there were no plans in the offing to change the game or what people can do with it.

Feedback from players would still be crucial in helping to develop the game, he said.

"Nothing's really changing," said Mr Bui. " We have no plans on anything changing and, of course, I can't talk about the deal and I don't know everything but we're still here, the game's still here and it's business as usual."

Open view

Mojang had always sought to preserve the original impetus that helped to make the game so popular, he said.

"Maintaining that original culture is really difficult," he said. "It's a culture which respects the community and allows that community to do what they want with the game and make it theirs.

"It is absolutely our intention, as it always has been, to continue with that," he told the BBC in an interview at London's Olympia exhibition centre where he was giving a keynote speech at the Brand Licensing Europe trade show.

Mr Bui acknowledged that the deal was "still in the works" but said Mojang's intention was to keep working closely with its huge community of players.

Many fans of the block-building game have expressed fears about what will happen once Microsoft is in ultimate control.

Minecraft inventor Markus Persson, aka Notch, has written about his reasons for approaching Microsoft and said he was handing it over as it had become a burden for him to run.

Continue reading the main story

People are at their most creative sometimes when you just let them do what they want"

End Quote Vu Bui Mojang boss

"I can't be responsible for something this big," he wrote soon after details of the deal were announced.

"It's not about the money," he added. "It's about my sanity."

Mr Bui said there would undoubtedly be some changes in the future, but these would still be done with the input, comments and feedback of fans.

The current system, in which Minecraft developers share what they are working on long before it is added to the game, would continue.

"We don't keep features secret," he said.

This openness would also operate as Mojang started to show off the new titles developers were working on, even though the studio was not yet ready to talk specifics, he said.

When they were ready, said Mr Bui, Mojang would let players try early versions of a game and help the title's creators refine it and help it become a commercial property.

A similar approach was used with Minecraft, and Mojang wanted to repeat the process because it was proven to help developers as they worked on a project.

It was not about trying to replicate what happened with Minecraft to make another title that proved just as popular. It was more about faith in the overall approach, said Mr Bui.

"We believe in that model," he said. "Regardless of your art form people should definitely put their energy into what they believe in, regardless of whether it will be successful.

"That's a noble effort," he added.

In the same way, he said, Mojang believed that it was a mistake for anyone to try to manage or manipulate the Minecraft community and dictate what can and cannot be done with the game.

Far better, he said, was to just get out of the way.

"People are at their most creative sometimes when you just let them do what they want," said Mr Bui. "You have to give them guidelines, but for the most part if you let people be creative they will come up with cooler stuff than we ever could ourselves."

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Anti-snoop phone maker plans tablet

Encrypted calls are only possible between Blackphone users or other devices running the Silent Phone app

The company behind the privacy-focused Blackphone has told Newsbeat it is planning to release a tablet.

Jon Callas, co-founder of Silent Circle which makes the anti-snooping device, said "we are going to have a tablet soon".

The Blackphone offers users encrypted calls, text messages and extra protection when browsing the web.

Mr Callas hinted there could also be further versions of the Blackphone in the works.

"Blackphone as it is, is our first device not our last device," he said.

Since going on sale in June 2014, the Blackphone has been selling "very well" according to Jon, but he admitted the device has limited appeal.

"We expect that it is going to be a niche, but it's a larger niche every day."

The Blackphone runs a modified version of the Android operating system, but without Google apps.

Jon Callas, co-founder of Blackphone maker Silent Circle told Newsbeat "We've been very fortunate that we've been on the early edge of a wave."

Jon Callas said despite the relatively limited number of apps available, the Blackphone offers users greater choice.

"You can have social media apps which can't get to your contacts, game which can't get to your network."

With no further details available on the forthcoming products from Silent Circle, potential customers will just have to wait and see.

Revelations by former US National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden raised a fresh awareness of privacy and data security.

"They have shown that we were onto something," said Jon Callas, acknowledging the timing has helped the company's sales.

"We've been very fortunate that we've been on the early edge of a wave."

At the Defcon conference in August 2014 there were claims the Blackphone had been hacked.

Silent Circle President Phil Zimmerman said despite the phone being touted as the most secure available, government intelligence agencies could still potentially gain access to it.

He said in a BBC interview "If they really wanted to attack just your phone... they would find a way in."

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

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Nude 'Snapchat images' put online

10 October 2014 Last updated at 17:25 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Explicit images believed to have been sent through messaging service Snapchat were reportedly put online, with threats from hackers to upload more.

Users who had been accessing the service via a third-party app, and not the official Snapchat app, had their images intercepted.

As half of its users are aged between 13 and 17, there is concern that many of the images may be of children.

Snapchat said its servers "were never breached".

The company added: "Snapchatters were victimised by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security.

"We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."

However, security researchers said Snapchat had to take more responsibility over user data.

"For them to just turn round and say, 'It's the users' fault,' does seem harsh," said Mark James, a security specialist from ESET.

"They give the perception it is safe, they need to make it safe. They need to crack down on people's ability to access their data."

The images were uploaded to the internet with a download link shared on a message board on Thursday night, according to reports.

The download has since gone offline, but hackers threatened to post thousands more images.

However, some doubted the authenticity of the images, suggesting many of them were duplicates or "fake".

Troubling incident

Snapchat is a messaging app that allows the sharing of videos and images that "disappear" after a short period of time, usually just a few seconds.

But according to Business Insider reporter James Cook, hackers had boasted of having access to 13 gigabytes' (GB) worth of pictures that had been intercepted over a number of years.

Speculation as to the source of the leak has pointed towards two third-party, unauthorised services that offered the ability to save Snapchat messages permanently. It suspected that at least one such service was keeping a database of all the pictures and videos that had passed through it.

The leak is yet another troubling security and privacy incident for Snapchat, said security consultant Brian Honan.

At the start of this year, 4.6m usernames and phone numbers were leaked online. More recently, the service has been suffering from spam messages being sent out from users' accounts without their knowledge.

"Has Snapchat been breached? According to the letter of the law, no," said Mr Honan.

"But people use Snapchat to keep their information secure and would expect the company to have systems and services in place to support that."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Kmart shops hit by payment card hack

13 October 2014 Last updated at 10:41

Cash registers at 1,200 Kmart stores were infected with malware that scooped up payment card numbers for over a month, reports the retailer.

In a statement, Kmart said the security breach was discovered on 9 October and that the malware had been operating since early September.

An initial investigation suggests the cyber-thieves stole credit and debit card numbers.

So far, it is not clear how many cards and customers have been affected.

Retail target

In its statement, Kmart said no personal information, pin codes, email addresses or social security numbers were taken with the card numbers.

The malware has now been removed and the breach contained, it said, but it was continuing its investigation to gauge its full impact.

It added that there was no evidence that any of the card numbers stolen were being used to create counterfeit cards and land victims with bills for items they did not buy.

Despite this, Kmart said it would be offering free credit monitoring protection for customers to ensure any fraudulent use of their cards did not affect their credit score.

The US Secret Service, which leads investigations into financial fraud, is known to be investigating the case.

"I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our members and customers," said Alasdair James, president of Kmart, in the statement.

News about the Kmart breach comes soon after the Dairy Queen restaurant chain revealed that some of its outlets across 46 US states were hit by hackers. Malware was used to steal names, card numbers and expiration dates of payment cards at 395 restaurants.

Many large US stores have been hit by attackers that target till systems in recent months. The largest attack was against Target in which thieves stole details of 40 million payment cards.

Shawn Henry, a former FBI officer, who is now head of security firm CrowdStrike Services, said retailers needed to do a better job of detecting breaches quickly before large numbers of payment data was stolen.

The computer networks of retailers were so large that attackers were more than likely to find a way in, he told Reuters.

"This is going to continue indefinitely until people change their practices," said Mr Henry.

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Samsung accelerates wi-fi speeds

13 October 2014 Last updated at 12:57

Samsung claims to have found a way to make wi-fi data travel five times faster than it does currently.

It said its engineers had overcome two significant technical problems that had restricted the transfer of data at well below its theoretical limit of 4.6Gbps.

If the technology lives up to its promise, it would mean a 1GB file could be transferred in less than three seconds.

Experts said it could take time for the tech to be built in to gadgets.

Slow start

In a short statement, Samsung said its engineers were working on wi-fi that operated in the 60GHz band.

Current wi-fi systems use 2.4 and 5GHz bands, and some can operate at speeds in excess of 1Gb per second.

Samsung said it had managed to limit the amount of interference data travelling on different channels, suffered when many devices were connected to a wi-fi hub or hotspot.

In addition, improvements to antenna had helped signals travel further and be less susceptible to getting lost while travelling. The breakthroughs mean data could travel at a rate of 575MBps (4.6Gbps).

The first devices built to use the 60GHz wi-fi standard are expected to appear in 2015. Samsung said it was planning to include the technology in TVs, medical devices, phones and smart home appliances.

"With more and more of us using a wide variety of different devices to access our photos, video, and personal data the ability to quickly transfer that data between devices is going to become even more important in the future," said Stuart Miles, founder of tech news site Pocket-lint.

"Having faster speeds will help that drastically," he said, adding that decisions still needed to be taken on frequency allocations and devices that could use the technology still needed to be built.

"It will take a couple of years for this technology to filter through to our every day lives," he said.

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Apple's Ive accuses copycats of theft

10 October 2014 Last updated at 12:50

Apple's lead designer Sir Jonathan "Jony" Ive has hit out at companies he believes copy his firm's products.

Speaking at an event hosted by Vanity Fair, the 47-year-old said: "I don't see it as flattery, I see it as theft."

He was responding to a question from the audience about Chinese tech maker Xiaomi, but was referring to Apple's competition in general.

Xiaomi has been accused of copying before, but the company has said the suggestion was "sensationalist".

Hugo Barra, who was poached by Xiaomi from Google, said the Chinese firm was "an incredibly innovative company".

But the company has come under fire from people who believed its designs appeared similar to Apple's iPhones and iPads.

Sir Jonathan, who was born in Chingford, London, was at the San Francisco event to discuss his career.

But when asked about his feelings towards copycat manufacturers, he said: "I have to be honest the last thing I think is, 'Oh, that is flattering.'

"All those weekends I could've been home with my family - I think it's theft and lazy. I don't think it's OK at all."

Learn from mistakes

However, some argue that Apple itself is not immune from picking up design and hardware inspiration from its competitors.

"Every Apple product is an evolution of a product that has come before it," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davis Murphy Group.

"They are rarely the first to come to market with a product.

"They sit back and see what mistakes happen. That's what they did with the iPod - they let others steam in with early mp3 players and make a mess of them."

But Mr Green said he felt the Apple designer's comments were a sign that Apple wanted to be seen as vigorously defending its work.

"When it comes to defending intellectual property based around software and appearance, it's very hard to defend that in court and to argue your position over that - rather than something that is more physical like a chip.

"They have to be seen to be defending their position."

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