UK cookie law compliance takes effect today
From today the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office will begin enforcing the EU’s revised ePrivacy Directive that requires website owners to be upfront with their users about the information they collect.
The so-called cookie law was implemented on 25 May 2011 by Brussels officials, but getting the legislation transposed locally within the 27 member-states of the European Union has proved to be tricky, perplexing, disruptive, confusing and a bit of a mess, really.
Here in Blighty, the government made the decision to effectively free up web owners from the burden of complying to the directive by deferring policing of the law for one year. The law requires sites within the EU to obtain a visitor’s consent before they install a cookie in their browser.
Time has now run out and from today the Information Commissioners Office will be enforcing the law and fining those web operators that are found to have violated the rules. A penalty of up to £500,000 could be imposed against those that fail to comply.
But the data protection watchdog has signalled it would take a gentle approach to enforcement and pointed out that very few companies would be slapped with a hefty fine for non-compliance.
The ICO’s Dave Evans said yesterday:
We’ve been saying that we expect organisations to be on the path to compliance – which means that UK websites must provide visitors with sufficient information to make a decision on whether they are happy for a cookie to be placed on their device and obtain consent before placing a cookie.
The regulator has an updated version of its guidance for compliance here. It’s probably worth reading between bites of ketchup-smeared cow. ®
Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/26/eprivacy_cookie_compliance_begins/
Cookie law set to come into force
26 May 2012
Last updated at 01:22
The cookie laws were drawn up to help privacy on the web
Thousands of UK websites are expected to be in breach of a law that dictates what they can log about visitors.
European laws that define what details sites can record in text files called cookies come into force on 26 May.
Cookies are widely used to customise what repeat visitors see on a site and by advertisers to track users online.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it would offer help to non-compliant sites rather than take legal action against them.
Action plan
The regulations say websites must get “informed consent” from users before they record any detailed information in the cookies they store on visitors’ computers.
Among websites that have complied with the law, getting consent has involved a pop-up box that explains the changes. Users are then asked to click to consent to having information recorded and told what will happen if they refuse.
UK firms have had 12 months to prepare for the change and the ICO has spent much of that time reminding businesses about their obligations.
The ICO has also updated its policy to allow organisations to use “implied consent” to comply. This means users do not have to make an explicit choice. Instead, their continued use of a site would be taken to mean they are happy for information to be gathered.
However, it was a “concern” for the ICO that so many sites were not yet compliant, said Dave Evans, group manager at the ICO who has led its work on cookies in the last 18 months. However, he added, it was not necessarily easy for companies to comply with the laws because of the amount of work it involved.
On busy sites, he said, an audit of current cookie practices could take time because of the sheer number of cookie files they regularly issue, monitor and update.
Mr Evans said the ICO was expecting sites that were not compliant to be able to demonstrate what work they had done in the last year to get ready.
Fines for non-compliance were unlikely to be levied, he said, because there was little risk that a non-compliant site would cause a serious breach of data protection laws that was likely to cause substantial damage and distress to a user.
It was planning to use formal undertakings or enforcement notices to make sites take action, he said.
“Those are setting out the steps we think they need to take in order to become compliant and when we expect them to be taking those steps,” he said. “If they comply with one of those notices or sign one of those undertakings they are committing to doing this properly and that’s the main point.”
As well as advising firms, the ICO has also issued guidance to the public that explains what cookies are, how to change cookie settings and how to complain if they are worried about a site’s policy.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18206810#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Apple’s Cook opts out of $75m dividend
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has opted to forgo the $75m (£48m) dividend payments that he was set to earn on the 1m shares he has received from the company.
Cook, who took over from Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs in August last year, was awarded 1m restricted stock units (RSUs) for running the company during Jobs’ medical leaves.
Apple said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday night that Cook had asked the company to be excluded from a programme through which employees could accumulate dividends on their RSUs that were still vesting.
With Apple’s share price at more than $565 a share, Cook’s shares are worth more than $500m. Half of these shares will vest in 2016 and the rest in 2021.
In March, Apple announced its intention to use some of its estimated $100bn cash pile, generated by strong sales of the iPhone and iPad, to pay shareholders a dividend of $2.65 a share.
It is the first time since the technology giant turned its fortunes around after Jobs’ return in 1997 that Apple has issued a dividend.
Apple is one of few companies on the Nasdaq that pay a dividend.
Shareholders of American technology companies traditionally tolerate firms not paying dividends, which allows them to invest heavily in research and development and fund big acquisitions.
Despite the payment of the dividend, Apple looks set to maintain its cash mountain at $100bn as new products such as the iPad continue to sell so well, which explains why the board has decided to pay a shareholder dividend now.
Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/25/apple-chief-tim-cook-opt-out-dividend
Cookie law set to come into force
26 May 2012
Last updated at 01:22
The cookie laws were drawn up to help privacy on the web
Thousands of UK websites are expected to be in breach of a law that dictates what they can log about visitors.
European laws that define what details sites can record in text files called cookies come into force on 26 May.
Cookies are widely used to customise what repeat visitors see on a site and by advertisers to track users online.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it would offer help to non-compliant sites rather than take legal action against them.
Action plan
The regulations say websites must get “informed consent” from users before they record any detailed information in the cookies they store on visitors’ computers.
Among websites that have complied with the law, getting consent has involved a pop-up box that explains the changes. Users are then asked to click to consent to having information recorded and told what will happen if they refuse.
UK firms have had 12 months to prepare for the change and the ICO has spent much of that time reminding businesses about their obligations.
The ICO has also updated its policy to allow organisations to use “implied consent” to comply. This means users do not have to make an explicit choice. Instead, their continued use of a site would be taken to mean they are happy for information to be gathered.
However, it was a “concern” for the ICO that so many sites were not yet compliant, said Dave Evans, group manager at the ICO who has led its work on cookies in the last 18 months. However, he added, it was not necessarily easy for companies to comply with the laws because of the amount of work it involved.
On busy sites, he said, an audit of current cookie practices could take time because of the sheer number of cookie files they regularly issue, monitor and update.
Mr Evans said the ICO was expecting sites that were not compliant to be able to demonstrate what work they had done in the last year to get ready.
Fines for non-compliance were unlikely to be levied, he said, because there was little risk that a non-compliant site would cause a serious breach of data protection laws that was likely to cause substantial damage and distress to a user.
It was planning to use formal undertakings or enforcement notices to make sites take action, he said.
“Those are setting out the steps we think they need to take in order to become compliant and when we expect them to be taking those steps,” he said. “If they comply with one of those notices or sign one of those undertakings they are committing to doing this properly and that’s the main point.”
As well as advising firms, the ICO has also issued guidance to the public that explains what cookies are, how to change cookie settings and how to complain if they are worried about a site’s policy.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18206810#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
UK cookie law compliance takes effect today
From today the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office will begin enforcing the EU’s revised ePrivacy Directive that requires website owners to be upfront with their users about the information they collect.
The so-called cookie law was implemented on 25 May 2011 by Brussels officials, but getting the legislation transposed locally within the 27 member-states of the European Union has proved to be tricky, perplexing, disruptive, confusing and a bit of a mess, really.
Here in Blighty, the government made the decision to effectively free up web owners from the burden of complying to the directive by deferring policing of the law for one year. The law requires sites within the EU to obtain a visitor’s consent before they install a cookie in their browser.
Time has now run out and from today the Information Commissioners Office will be enforcing the law and fining those web operators that are found to have violated the rules. A penalty of up to £500,000 could be imposed against those that fail to comply.
But the data protection watchdog has signalled it would take a gentle approach to enforcement and pointed out that very few companies would be slapped with a hefty fine for non-compliance.
The ICO’s Dave Evans said yesterday:
We’ve been saying that we expect organisations to be on the path to compliance – which means that UK websites must provide visitors with sufficient information to make a decision on whether they are happy for a cookie to be placed on their device and obtain consent before placing a cookie.
The regulator has an updated version of its guidance for compliance here. It’s probably worth reading between bites of ketchup-smeared cow. ®
Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/26/eprivacy_cookie_compliance_begins/
Cookie law set to come into force
26 May 2012
Last updated at 01:22
The cookie laws were drawn up to help privacy on the web
Thousands of UK websites are expected to be in breach of a law that dictates what they can log about visitors.
European laws that define what details sites can record in text files called cookies come into force on 26 May.
Cookies are widely used to customise what repeat visitors see on a site and by advertisers to track users online.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it would offer help to non-compliant sites rather than take legal action against them.
Action plan
The regulations say websites must get “informed consent” from users before they record any detailed information in the cookies they store on visitors’ computers.
Among websites that have complied with the law, getting consent has involved a pop-up box that explains the changes. Users are then asked to click to consent to having information recorded and told what will happen if they refuse.
UK firms have had 12 months to prepare for the change and the ICO has spent much of that time reminding businesses about their obligations.
The ICO has also updated its policy to allow organisations to use “implied consent” to comply. This means users do not have to make an explicit choice. Instead, their continued use of a site would be taken to mean they are happy for information to be gathered.
However, it was a “concern” for the ICO that so many sites were not yet compliant, said Dave Evans, group manager at the ICO who has led its work on cookies in the last 18 months. However, he added, it was not necessarily easy for companies to comply with the laws because of the amount of work it involved.
On busy sites, he said, an audit of current cookie practices could take time because of the sheer number of cookie files they regularly issue, monitor and update.
Mr Evans said the ICO was expecting sites that were not compliant to be able to demonstrate what work they had done in the last year to get ready.
Fines for non-compliance were unlikely to be levied, he said, because there was little risk that a non-compliant site would cause a serious breach of data protection laws that was likely to cause substantial damage and distress to a user.
It was planning to use formal undertakings or enforcement notices to make sites take action, he said.
“Those are setting out the steps we think they need to take in order to become compliant and when we expect them to be taking those steps,” he said. “If they comply with one of those notices or sign one of those undertakings they are committing to doing this properly and that’s the main point.”
As well as advising firms, the ICO has also issued guidance to the public that explains what cookies are, how to change cookie settings and how to complain if they are worried about a site’s policy.
Do you run a website? What’s your reaction to the new policies? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18206810#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
MySQL’s growing NoSQL problem
Open … and Shut Just a few short years ago, MySQL was the undisputed king of the open-source database hill. But with the NoSQL market emerging at an 82 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), it’s looking like MySQL may get bulldozed by its NoSQL peers.
While this shift toward NoSQL provides an interesting commentary on where the industry is heading, it’s even more instructive about the frenetic pace of innovation that open source is driving.
It says little about Oracle’s stewardship of MySQL.
By most accounts, Oracle has taken good care of MySQL, investing resources to improve the technology and continuing to foster its community. As Matthew Aslett, research manager with 451 Research, notes: “The MySQL ecosystem is now arguably more healthy and vibrant than it has ever been, with a strong vendor committed to the core product, and a wealth of alternative and complementary products and services on offer to maintain competitive pressure on Oracle.”
Aslett shared a few thoughts in a presentation entitled Whatever Happened to MySQL? at the Open Source Business Conference (of which I’m programme chair: it was held in San Francisco earlier this week). He said the majority of cases where companies abandoned MySQL in the wake of Oracle’s ownership suggested Oracle’s management of MySQL has been positive or, at worst, neutral.
This is why 451 Research pegs the MySQL market at $664m by 2015, growing at a healthy 40 per cent CAGR:
What isn’t healthy in that chart, however, is the rise of the NoSQL database market. While Aslett was quick to point out that only 12.7 per cent of those companies abandoning MySQL were directly replacing it with a NoSQL database, he went further to suggest that this still represents an infinitesimal drop in MySQL’s installed base. The most common replacement for MySQL? PostgreSQL. But even this is a tiny sliver of the overall MySQL installed base.
Running the numbers, Aslett pointed out that NoSQL vendors collectively claim 900 paying customers. If 25 per cent of these reflect replacements of MySQL that still represents less than 1.5 per cent of the estimated installed base of Oracle’s MySQL paying customers, or less than 0.002 per cent of the total estimated MySQL installed base.
In other words, NoSQL is not making a dent in MySQL’s installed base.
But where NoSQL poses a clear and present danger to MySQL is in the web application market where MySQL has made its name. Few are going to rip and replace a database for existing applications, but new applications are increasingly going the NoSQL route. As 451 Research notes: “NoSQL database technologies are largely being adopted for new projects that require additional scalability, performance, relaxed consistency and agility.”
Back in 2009 then-MySQL chief executive Marten Mickos argued that Oracle should be allowed to buy MySQL as part of its bid for Sun Microsystems, as MySQL didn’t directly compete with Oracle. As he said: “MySQL is growing like crazy. That hasn’t hurt Oracle. MySQL works for Web-based applications. Oracle is for older, legacy applications.”
Today those same, web-based applications are being built with NoSQL, and decreasingly MySQL.
This is actually pretty amazing when we stop to consider just how quickly this shift occurred. While NoSQL was first introduced as a concept in 1998, it really wasn’t until 2009 that it emerged as a real trend. At that time, MySQL was the undisputed leader in open-source databases. But this dominance has had a short shelf-life, as Aslett presented using a series of 451 Research headlines:
“MySQL was very much the crown jewel of the open source database world.”
– May 2008
“There are relatively few choices for Oracle’s rivals to respond to its ownership of MySQL.”
– May 2009
“The database market is awash with open source databases with lightweight architectures targeted at web applications.”
– April 2011
From no real alternatives to MySQL to an overabundance, and in just two years. That’s an amazingly fast shift, and it says a great deal about how open source drives innovation.
Think about the important technologies that move the industry today. CIOs cite cloud and Big Data as their top-two priorities in 2012, according to a recent InformationWeek survey:
CIOs top two budget priorities for 2012? Cloud and Big Data, according to new InformationWeek survey data twitter.com/mjasay/status/…
— Matt Asay (@mjasay) May 24, 2012
Both cloud and Big Data are overwhelmingly fueled by open source, whether it’s Hadoop, Pig, Linux, or OpenStack. While open source has certainly invaded the data centre, it’s really in the cloud that it dominates, as Bryan Che, senior director of product management at Red Hat, declares:
Open source is certainly at the foundation in terms of building out cloud technologies. If you take a look at market share in the server space, as you look at traditional data centers, about 70 per cent are running on the Windows platform and about 30 per cent are running Linux. As you take a look at what operating systems people are choosing to build applications on in the cloud, the ratio flips completely.
The concept of cloud has been around for awhile, but it didn’t really hit its stride until relevant open-source projects made it cost effective to build and run a cloud. Similarly, we’ve had data mining and warehousing for many years, but it wasn’t until Hadoop changed both the economics and performance of mining Big Data that the trend really came into its own.
We are now in a hyper-innovation mode when open source is no longer really competing against proprietary software, which can’t keep up, but is instead competing with other open-source projects. There is rampant competition within the database market, as noted above, but also within Hadoop, for example, and between a wide array of open-source technologies. For the customer, it means that it’s getting harder to choose between alternatives, but it also means those alternatives are getting better all the time, faster than ever before. ®
Matt Asay is senior vice president of business development at Nodeable, offering systems management for managing and analysing cloud-based data. He was formerly SVP of biz dev at HTML5 start-up Strobe and chief operating officer of Ubuntu commercial operation Canonical. With more than a decade spent in open source, Asay served as Alfresco’s general manager for the Americas and vice president of business development, and he helped put Novell on its open source track. Asay is an emeritus board member of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). His column, Open…and Shut, appears three times a week on The Register.
Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/25/nosql_vs_mysql/
Apple’s Cook opts out of $75m dividend
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has opted to forgo the $75m (£48m) dividend payments that he was set to earn on the 1m shares he has received from the company.
Cook, who took over from Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs in August last year, was awarded 1m restricted stock units (RSUs) for running the company during Jobs’ medical leaves.
Apple said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday night that Cook had asked the company to be excluded from a programme through which employees could accumulate dividends on their RSUs that were still vesting.
With Apple’s share price at more than $565 a share, Cook’s shares are worth more than $500m. Half of these shares will vest in 2016 and the rest in 2021.
In March, Apple announced its intention to use some of its estimated $100bn cash pile, generated by strong sales of the iPhone and iPad, to pay shareholders a dividend of $2.65 a share.
It is the first time since the technology giant turned its fortunes around after Jobs’ return in 1997 that Apple has issued a dividend.
Apple is one of few companies on the Nasdaq that pay a dividend.
Shareholders of American technology companies traditionally tolerate firms not paying dividends, which allows them to invest heavily in research and development and fund big acquisitions.
Despite the payment of the dividend, Apple looks set to maintain its cash mountain at $100bn as new products such as the iPad continue to sell so well, which explains why the board has decided to pay a shareholder dividend now.
Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/25/apple-chief-tim-cook-opt-out-dividend
Cookie use deadline approaches
25 May 2012
Last updated at 00:01
The EU wants to put a stop to tracking cookies logging a user’s activity without their knowledge
Friday marks the last working day for UK businesses to prepare their websites for a new law governing the use of cookies.
From Sunday, sites must obtain “informed consent” from visitors before saving cookies on a machine.
Cookies are pieces of personal data stored when users browse the web, sometimes to power advertising.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is to launch a tool for the public to report non-compliant sites.
It is expected that the vast majority of websites will not be ready in time.
However, the ICO has said it would not take immediate action over non-compliant sites, and would instead offer guidance.
Tracking data
The rules are designed to tackle privacy issues resulting from the growing use of cookies which track users’ browsing habits.
The guidelines, set by the EU, mean visitors must be told what cookies are being placed on their machine.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Some organisations may be made an example of in order to set the parameters of compliancy moving forward”
End Quote
Vinod Bange
Data privacy lawyer
Typically, this will mean a pop-up window seeking consent.
The BBC, which brought its site in line with the guidelines on Thursday, allows users to opt out of cookies the first time they visit the website.
An Ipsos MORI poll, commissioned by privacy solutions provider Truste, suggested that while 84% of online consumers aged 16-64 were aware of internet cookies, just 24% knew about the new guidelines.
The owners of non-compliant websites face fines of up to £500,000, but the ICO has played down the threat of such serious action, telling the BBC it would take a soft approach to enforcement.
“Up until now, if we received a complaint about your website we would point you in the direction of our guidance,” said Dave Evans, group manager for the ICO.
“Given that everyone has had a year [to comply], we’re going to shift from that kind of approach to one which will be very much more focused on those people who don’t appear to have done anything and asking them ‘why not?””
Last week the government admitted that most of its sites would not comply with the new rules in time. It said it was “working to achieve compliance at the earliest possible date”.
Continue reading the main story
Cookie flavours
Cookies are small files that allow a website to recognise and track users. The ICO groups them into three overlapping groups:
Session cookies
Files that allow a site to link the actions of a visitor during a single browser session. These might be used by an internet bank or webmail service. They are not stored long term and are considered “less privacy intrusive” than persistent cookies.
Persistent cookies
These remain on the user’s device between sessions and allow one or several sites to remember details about the visitor. They may be used by marketers to target advertising or to avoid the user having to provide a password each visit.
First and third-party cookies
A cookie is classed as being first-party if it is set by the site being visited. It might be used to study how people navigate a site.
It is classed as third-party if it is issued by a different server to that of the domain being visited. It could be used to trigger a banner advert based on the visitor’s viewing habits.
The ICO insisted this weekend was not a deadline, but an attempt to help companies focus on their general cookie use.
“We never said was that if you’re not compliant by 27 May we will come and get you,” Mr Evans told the BBC.
“What we want is good compliance, not rushed compliance. If it’s focused people’s minds, that’s a good thing.”
Changed stance
The ICO has come under criticism from businesses for not being entirely clear about what constitutes compliance.
Vinod Bange, a data privacy specialist from law firm Taylor Wessing, said many businesses were nervous about implementing solutions.
“A lack of education and clear guidelines from the ICO on what constitutes compliance has left many businesses unsure of how to meet the directive with only one working day to go,” he said.
“Few businesses want to be the first to adopt a specific approach. This is a risky game, as some organisations may be made an example of in order to set the parameters of compliancy moving forward.”
This concern was shared by Tim Gurney, managing director of Wolf Software, a firm which helps websites become compliant.
He said the lack of clear guidance had led to some firms adopting systems which damaged the way visitors interacted with sites.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
What we want to do is look at where our resources can best be put”
End Quote
Dave Evans
ICO
“Some of the implementations are very poor. For me, they’re making a mistake because users will stop using their sites.
“Those kind of solutions I can see being changed as the user starts to say ‘I don’t like that’.”
Industry help
Mr Evans defended the ICO’s approach, saying the ambiguity was to enable websites to interpret the rules to best suit their own audience and website design.
He also told the BBC that he believed that in the long term issues over cookie use should be regulated by the industry rather than government.
“What we want to do is look at where our resources can best be put,” he said.
“If we were putting all our resources into investigating cookies, well, the people would quite rightly be asking where our priorities lie.
“Regulators have got resources that are not infinite. The best solutions are where industry sits down and develops it themselves. The more they can do, the easier it is for us to regulate.”
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18194235#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Motorola Mobility loses to Microsoft in German patent battle
Motorola Mobility has suffered another blow in Europe, with a German court deciding it’s breached Microsoft patents.
Already under EU investigation for allegedly reneging on its FRAND responsibilities, Motorola Mobility has been found to be infringing Redmond’s IP by allowing users of its mobile phones to send long text messages by breaking them into a batch of several messages, reports Reuters.
It is to be hoped, in the legal looking-glass world of patents, that individuals who choose to do so without the help of their phone aren’t also about to get a lawyer’s letter co-signed Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft has said it hopes Motorola “will be willing to join other Android device makers by taking a license to our patents”.
The now Google-owned Motorola has, naturally enough, hinted at an appeal once it has the chance to examine the full judgment, expected on June 1.
However, it didn’t go all Redmond’s way: the German court rejected Microsoft’s complaint that Motorola was breaching its IP by using a software feature called program localization.
The international stoush between Motorola and Microsoft recently provoked a US judge to complain that his court (and presumably all the others dragged into this putrescent pettifogging pugilism) “is being used as a pawn in a global, industrywide commercial negotiation.” ®
Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/24/another_installment_of_patent_stupidity/
