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After Modifications, Google Street View Approved For Switzerland 84

Posted by Soulskill from the good-idea-to-do-what-the-swiss-ask dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Since Google began collecting Street View data in Europe a few years ago, many countries have taken it the company to court in order to settle privacy concerns. The NY Times reports that the last challenge to Street View's basic legality has been resolved. Switzerland's top court accepted that Google could only guarantee they would blur out 99% of faces, license plates, and other identifying markers, but also imposed some additional restrictions. 'Those conditions would require Google to lower the height of its Street View cameras so they would not peer over garden walls and hedges, to completely blur out sensitive facilities like women's shelters, prisons, retirement homes and schools, and to advise communities in advance of scheduled tapings.'"
Media

New Ads That Watch You 238

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the watching-the-watchers dept.
Pandanapper writes to tell us Yahoo is reporting that if you find yourself watching an ad on a video screen in a public venue, the ad may be watching you as well. "Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer's gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity -- and can change the ads accordingly. That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetics ads for women and video-game ads for teens."

Comment Re:7000 people, that is a joke! (Score 1) 209

by ribit (#26112141) Attached to: Australia Says No to Internet Censorship

The German ID card isn't linked to a database in the same way as in the UK proposed system. When I lived there I took months and in one case years to update my address with the local authorities. It wasn't a big deal ad they were always fine with it. I do worry about massive databases and the UK plan though.

Registration for the UK ID card for foreign nationals in the UK has only just started 2 weeks ago, so it couldn't be a requirement yet? There is no carry at all times requirement that I know of? (Not to be confused with a police right to ask for ID).
Data Storage

Huge Data Center Looks Like a Circuit Board 51

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the hopefully-the-inside-is-as-advanced-as-the-outside dept.
1sockchuck writes to share a look at Digital Beijing, the data center for the 2008 Olympics. The huge (1.05 million square feet) building was designed to resemble a circuit board from 2 sides and a barcode from the other 2 ground-viewable sides. Looks like the nighttime view of this monster is going to be pretty impressive.
Google

Clandestine Operations at Google 166

Posted by CmdrTaco from the spooks-at-the-goog dept.
eldavojohn writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is running an interesting story about Google's involvement with the CIA, NSA, NOAA and several other agencies. This has been speculated before although now Google seems to have several contracts open with several agencies. From the article, "When the nation's intelligence agencies wanted a computer network to better share information about everything from al Qaeda to North Korea, they turned to a big name in the technology industry to supply some of the equipment: Google Inc. The Mountain View company sold the agencies servers for searching documents, marking a small victory for the company and its little-known effort to do business with the government. 'We are a very small group, and even a lot of people in the federal government don't know that we exist,' said Mike Bradshaw, who leads Google's federal government sales team and its 18 employees.""
The Internet

World's Fastest Net Link 'Used To Dry Laundry' 135

Posted by CmdrTaco from the it-gets-pretty-hot-in-there dept.
praps writes "Last summer a 75-year-old woman from central Sweden became the envy of the IT world with her scorching 40Gbps internet connection. 1,500 simultaneous HDTV channels or a whole high definition DVD downloaded in two seconds were hers for the taking. Now Sigbritt Löthberg could soon be treated to an incredible 100 Gbps link — but it may not be put to great use. According to the head of the ultra-fast fiber connection project, Sigbritt mostly used the gear 'to dry her laundry.'"

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