Reuters: EU antitrust chief says investigation of Google’s Android, AdSense is advancing. “Investigations into how Google (GOOGL.O) may be using its Android smartphone operating system and its AdSense advertising service to thwart rivals are advancing, Europe’s antitrust chief said on Wednesday, amid concern about the lengthy proceedings.”
Europe
EurekAlert: RAND identifies new strategies for countering Russian social media
EurekAlert: RAND identifies new strategies for countering Russian social media . “A new RAND Corporation report finds that Russia is waging a social media campaign in the Baltics, Ukraine and nearby states to sow dissent against neighboring governments, as well as NATO and the European Union. In addition to employing a state-funded multi-lingual television network, operating various pro-government news websites and working through Russian-backed ‘civil society’ organizations, Russia also employs a sophisticated social media campaign that includes news tweets, non-attributed comments on web pages, troll and bot social media accounts, and fake hashtag and Twitter campaigns.”
Business Insider: Google poised to emerge unscathed from European antitrust crackdown
Business Insider: Google poised to emerge unscathed from European antitrust crackdown. “The European Union’s top antitrust regulator, Margrethe Vestager, has made it her mission to stem alleged anti-competitive abuses by big American tech companies, threatening as recently as last month to break up Alphabet Inc’s Google. But a decision in the most important of three antitrust cases against Google – this one aimed at loosening its stranglehold over Android-powered smartphones – is likely to show just how difficult it is, even for a committed trust-buster like Vestager, to dent the power of the U.S. giants.”
Privacy imported: US weighs EU-style regulations to protect your data (CNET)
CNET: Privacy imported: US weighs EU-style regulations to protect your data. “What if more privacy was the law? The European Union has already made it so with its General Data Protection Regulation, which gives users the ability to request information on who has their data, as well as the right to ask for copies of it or have it deleted. Until recently, it seemed like that law would have only limited benefits for people outside of Europe.”
The Guardian: Brexiters seek campaign memorabilia for ‘museum of sovereignty’
The Guardian: Brexiters seek campaign memorabilia for ‘museum of sovereignty’. “It sounds like a remainer’s worst nightmare: a museum of Brexit with a grand atrium dominated by the ‘£350m for the NHS’ bus, leading to galleries displaying a selection of Nigel Farage’s louder tweed jackets. The reality is quite different, not least as the proposed Brexit museum, officially pitched as a ‘museum of sovereignty’, is thus far nothing more than an idea coupled with an appeal for exhibits.”
Techdirt: Hated Science Publisher Elsevier To Help EU Monitor Open Science – Including Open Access
Techdirt: Hated Science Publisher Elsevier To Help EU Monitor Open Science – Including Open Access. “Techdirt has written many stories about the publisher Elsevier. They have all been pretty negative: the company seems determined to represent the worst of academic publishing. It’s no surprise, then, that many academics loathe the company. Against that background, news that the EU ‘Open science Monitor’ will use Elsevier as a subcontractor is surprising, to say the least.”
The Verge: Facebook says it will not extend GDPR privacy protections beyond EU
The Verge: Facebook says it will not extend GDPR privacy protections beyond EU. “Facebook has no plans to extend the user privacy protections put in place by the far-reaching General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, law to users of its social network around the globe, according to Reuters. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the news agency in an interview that Facebook would like to make such privacy guarantees ‘in spirit,’ but would make exceptions. Zuckerberg declined to explain those exceptions, according to Reuters.”
