Europe v Facebook Privacy Campaign Group Is Preparing To Sue Facebook In Ireland, Sets Up Crowdfunding Platform To Fund Court Costs

As Facebook take a poll poll that looks very likely to result in Facebook  – the European activists behind the Europe v Facebook campaign group, which accuses Facebook of violating Europe’s Data Protection Laws, have stepped up their long running battle against the social network. The group has indicated it is preparing to sue Facebook in Ireland — the location of Facebook’s international headquarters — and has set up a crowdfunding to raise the €100,000 to €300,000 needed to fund legal action.

“We now hope for a soon settlement of our complaints. Simultaneously we have to assume that the authority in many cases won’t decide in the favor of users but in the favor of Facebook. Such a decision can be contested by us at court,” the group notes.

The group is unhappy with the Irish Data Protection Authority’s report into privacy and data protection on Facebook — and wants legally binding decisions to resolve all its 22 complaints against Facebook (listed in full in Europe v Facebook's counter report, with current status of the complaints shown at the end of this article). Back in September the Irish DPA Report said Facebook had implemented to its satisfaction “the great majority” of its recommendations — including turning off a facial recognition feature in Europe. However Europe v Facebook believe the audit was not rigorous enough — noting that

The Irish authority has taken many important steps which moved privacy on Facebook forward, but when looked at it in more detail, has not always delivered solid and fact based results. Facebook’s statements were simply adopted, even though many of them can be disproven with a few screenshots. It seems like Facebook has also fooled the authority in some cases or did at least not stick to their promises.
None of our complaints are currently resolved, since many were just worked on superficially. We also had to find out that the Irish authority is not in line with the common legal understanding within the EU, expressed in the Article 29 Working Party’s opinions.

The group has now published a ‘counter report‘, responding to the DPA’s report. The counter report summarises the group’s position that while the DPA’s audit of Facebook has led to “many achievements” — such as Facebook having to disclose more data it holds per user, limit data retention periods for certain data and switching off facial recognition in the EU — it has not satisfactorily resolved all complaints. “After a detailed analysis of the ‘audit’ documents it became clear that the authority has taken very important first steps, but that it has not always delivered accurate and correct results,” the group notes.

“A non-binding audit might not need such accuracy, but we expect that the authority goes into every detail when deciding about our complaints. In some cases we also had to wonder if the authority has really checked Facebook’s claims, or if they have blindly trusted Facebook,” said Max Schrems, spokesman for europe-v-facebook.org, in a statement. “We have strictly followed the opinions of the comity of the EU data protection authorities (“Article 29 Working Party”). The Irish authority’s interpretation is often contrary to the rest of the EU.”

“We have to understand the position of the Irish authority: They had to deal with a whole armada of lawyers from Facebook,” Schrems added. ”On the other hand we have a fundamental right to privacy and data protection in the EU. When it comes to basic freedoms and fundamental rights our understanding for the situation of the authority comes to an end.”

Europe v Facebook claims that more than 40,000 Facebook users who have requested a copy of their data from Facebook have yet to receive it — its counter report notes: “The legal deadline of 40 days to deliver all data has passed 13 times.” The group also wants answers on why Facebook has only deactivated facial recognition in Europe, noting: “it is unclear why this was only deactivated for EU citizens, because Ireland is responsible for all users outside of the US and Canada. In addition, the technical implementation of this ban is unclear”.

Europe v Facebook says its next steps will be to again ask the DPA to “deliver all necessary files and evidence” — noting that: “So far we were not allowed to even see the counterarguments by Facebook”, adding: “After this we will ask for a formal, legally binding decision on all 22 complaints.”

We’ve reached out to Facebook for a comment on Europe v Facebook’s latest steps and will update this story with any response.

Below is a screengrab of the current status of Europe v Facebook’s complaints against the site — as noted in its counter report

Chrome OS: Google’s Most Underrated Project That You’ve Already Been Testing And Just Didn’t Know It

There are hundreds of devices to choose from when you’re considering a new desktop computer, laptop or mobile device. We’re overwhelmed by all of the choices we have, but choice is good. When it comes to computing, as far as operating systems, there are three huge players: Microsoft, Apple and Google. Yes, Google.

A curious thing happened during Chrome - an operating system was born. Perhaps that was the plan all along, one can never truly know with Google. What I do know is that when you’re on the go, especially with a laptop, the primary piece of software that everyone uses is the web browser, so why not build an operating system on top of it?

That’s exactly what Chrome OS is and it’s starting to make its way to consumers. Google has announced strong partnerships with hardware manufacturers like Samsung and Acer to build affordable (not cheap) laptops built for a world that accesses information in the cloud. When I say the cloud, I mean, email, files, web surfing, chatting and social networking. These things are all done very well through the browser and not through an installed desktop application.

You’d be hard-pressed to find something that you can’t do through the browser, and need actual installed software for. For me, it was using Spotify to listen to music, but that's being sorted out as we speak I sat down with the Chrome OS team to discuss its evolution and current iteration and came away quite impressed.

THE OS

Chrome OS is an open-source operating system built on many of the things that you might be using already with the Chrome browser. Everything is quite familiar, with the full integration of all of Google’s core products: Drive, Chrome, Gmail, Play, Plus, and of course Search. If you use Google products, then using Chrome OS will be an extremely natural experience for you.

Everything runs pretty quickly on the device that I’m using right now, the latest Samsung Chromebook. I find that I’m not looking to drag and drop things onto a desktop, because it gets messy. Instead, everything is held in an internal filesystem that can be dragged and dropped anywhere, including Google Drive. This makes for moving files between systems super simple. Since all of the things you would probably want to do are available via Chrome extensions, you’ll be able to evolve your environment as new things become available.

Speaking of super simple, I was able to open this laptop, log in with my Google credentials, and start using it as if it were my tablet or phone within three minutes. Since everything is synced, it doesn’t matter what device you’re using in a Google world. It just works. And more importantly, it’s easy to iterate on, on the fly.

Caesar Sengupta, Product Management Director on Chrome OS at Google, told me:

The story for Chrome OS starts way back. It starts with the browser, Chrome. Google’s a web company: We push the boundaries of the web; everything we do is largely on the web. One of the things we realized early on was the web wasn’t keeping up with the potential of what the web could be. We were building apps like Gmail and Google News – rich and vibrant. Browsers weren’t able to handle it. And the web is a platform that allows you to deploy globally without installation. You could pick up any machine login and work. In order to build fun and sexy stuff, you have to build on it.

THE HARDWARE

The hardware itself, like I mentioned, the Samsung Coockbook, looks strikingly similar to the MacBook Air. Yes, start your complaining about copycatting now, that’s not the point. It’s light, runs quickly, and does exactly what you’d want to do. Especially if you rely on a web browser a lot.

Here are full details about what's inside:

• 11.6’’ (1366×768) display

• 0.7 inches thin – 2.42 lbs / 1.1 kg
• Over 6.5 hours of battery 1
• Samsung Exynos 5 Dual Processor
• 100 GB Google Drive Cloud Storage2 with 16GB Solid State Drive
• Built-in dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• VGA Camera
• 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0
• HDMI Port

• Bluetooth 3.0™ Compatible

It’s pretty impressive, but who cares about all of that. It just works, and it works quite well.

Regarding its strategy in rolling out Chromebook hardware over the past year, Group Product Manager Ryan Tabone told me:

The point of the prototype was to develop the software. Samsung and Acer shipped devices last year – same form factor but based on Atom. We basically just offered these devices online. The people who were ready for it, came to it. We realized at Google this journey is going to take us some time. The world is moving into these ecosystems. For a web company to have hardware, it was an area we needed to have a strong offering in.

THE PRICE

Price is one of those things that trips everyone up. We know what an iPhone costs, kind of. We know what an iPad and a Surface costs. Prices are expensive to some and cheap to others. This particular Samsung Chromebook is $249. You can call it cheap, or you can call it inexpensive. I’ll go with the latter.

The nice part about machines at that pricepoint is that you can get them into the hands of kids. In fact, Google is seeing pretty good traction in schools that are picking up Chromebooks for entire classrooms. They’re easy to administer from a high level and low-priced enough if they were to get broken, stolen or lost.

Also, I tend to break things or drop them in toilets. Don’t ask. In that case, running out and picking up another laptop that I can be up and running on in a matter of minutes in my exact previous state is pretty priceless. So let’s call this thing inexpensive, shall we?

Sengupta had this to say on the price:

There was a core group of people who were using these as additional computers, for other people in the family, like my wife. She does a lot but does it all online.

Tabone had a good point:

When have you ever thought of giving someone a computer as a gift?

Never.

THE POINT

Computing doesn’t have to be difficult, it should be fun and efficient at the same time. You can do both, and Google does a wonderful job of facilitating that with its current suite of products and services. Even if you’re not an Android phone user, which I’m not, you can still find value in Chrome OS.

From a usability, price, and compatibility perspective, it’s difficult to find another operating system on hardware that runs this well, and without so little effort to actually make it work. Basically, you won’t be getting tons of calls from mom and dad on how to use it. That’s good for us, but for them too. It’s empowering. You should use technology, it shouldn’t use you. And the best technology finds itself completely getting out of itself.

If you use the Chrome browser, you’ve already been testing it, you just didn’t know it. Chrome OS won’t change the way that you compute, it’ll just make it easier.

China Unicom Receives Orders for More Than 100,000 iPhone 5 Units

Chaina Unicom announced that it received orders for more than 100,000 iPhone 5s on its first day of pre-sales, according to a report on Sean Tech. A subsidiary of rival wireless operator China Telecom said that it has received more than 50000 units

The lag between the iPhone 5′s U.S. and China release dates was thanks to the wait for final regularatory from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Apple announced last week that the iPhone 5 will be available in China (and 50 other countries, including Brazil, Russia and Taiwan) on December 14. The iPhone 5 has been available in 47 countries, including the U.S., UK, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, since September 21.

While this is the quickest rollout of an iPhone to date, the long wait for Apple products has turned off many Chinese consumers. China received the iPhone 4S on January 13, three months after the U.S. In August, research group IDC estimated that Apple’s share of China’s smartphone market was cut in half during the second quarter to 10 percent, as customers turned to devices made by competitors like Chinese company Lenovo, which some analysts believe will take the No. 1 smartphone slot in China next year. Lenovo’s products, including the Android-powered LePhone, benefits from strong brand recognition, nationwide availability, and affordable pricing aimed at the mid-to-lower end of the market.

But the company remains upbeat about its opportunities in the Chinese market. During Apple's Q4 earning calls, Tim Cook said revenue for the full fiscal year was $23.8 billion for China, an increase of $10 billion year-on-year, and that sales of the iPhone in Greater China (i.e. China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) had climbed 38 percent.