Google removes search results in wake of EU privacy ruling

BRUSSELS — Google has started removing some search results in the European Union after an EU court told it last month to respond to requests by people seeking the ‘‘right to be forgotten.’’

The company started offering an online tool to allow people to ask for search results to be redacted after the EU Court of Justice ruled on May 13 that citizens’ fundamental rights could be harmed by information on the Web and where there’s no public interest in publishing it.

The right-to-be-forgotten ruling was a surprise for Google and other companies already facing greater scrutiny over privacy practices in the 28-nation EU.

Google has ‘‘been working round the clock to comply’’ with the court ruling, the company said on its website. It will assess each individual request and ‘‘balance the rights of the individual to control his or her personal data with’’ the public’s right to know and distribute information, it said.

To qualify for removal, personal information needs to be ‘‘inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant, or excessive.’’

California-based Google is ‘‘starting to take action on the removals requests that we’ve received,’’ said Al Verney, a spokesman for the company in Brussels.

‘‘Each request has to be assessed individually, and we’re working as quickly as possible to get through the queue.’’

Google is posting a statement that results may have been redacted on most searches made by Europeans on a person’s name, the company said. The notice appears even on searches for people who haven’t requested that any data be taken off the Web, Google said on its website.

While the company has said it’s received more than 50,000 requests to remove personal information from search results, it won’t specify how many it has got to date.

Source:

www.bostonglobe.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 11:42 PM in Al Verney, assessed individually, Brussels, EU court, EU privacy ruling, European Union, Google removes, greater scrutiny, Justice ruled, public interest

EU’s long-awaited $15 billion package may add to government’s austerity program

European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso gives a press conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, on March 5, 2014. AFP

The European Union has promised $15 billion of financial help to Ukraine as the nation tightens its belt amid a looming cash crunch. 

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters in Brussels on March that the money would come via various instruments over several years.

Ukraine will receive $1.4 billion in the form of loans, paid from the EU budget. Another $2 billion will come as EU grants over the next seven years. The European Investment Bank is to contribute $4.2 billion over 2014-2016 and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to add $7 billion through 2020.

Meanwhile, Barroso added that the macro-financial aid and some $840 million in new grants can be disbursed “very fast … within a matter of weeks.”

Earlier on Feb. 5 Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak said that Ukraine must pay out $10 billion by end of this year to service all of its debt obligations.

“The $15 billion (of EU money) mentioned was just window dressing and little of this will be disbursed as balance of payments/budget support,” said Timothy Ash, head of research for emerging markets at Standard Bank in London.

“Everything will depend on how this money will be used. It could be used for fixing the balance of payments, the central bank’s reserves, or the budget gap,” said Igor Burakovsky, head of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Analysis.

Barroso also proposed that EU countries should immediately apply lower trade tariffs on Ukrainian imports, as envisaged in a future free trade agreement that ex-President Viktor Yanukovych had originally shunned on Nov. 21.

If Ukrainian producers who want to access EU markets get easier conditions for adapting to European standards, this would contribute greatly to the macroeconomic assistance package, said DmytroChurin, leading analyst for Eavex Capital investment house. “It would diminish all the fears and nervousness that industrial market actors had at the end of last year,” he explained.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kyiv on March 5 and pledged $1 billion in financial help for Ukraine within the bigger package to be provided by Western countries.

However, the Ukrainian government is not being overly optimistic about both the EU and the U.S. pledges. Still, a default risk is much less likely than it was a month ago, but the “treasury is empty,” said Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.

State debt reached $73.2 billion in January, and the International Monetary Fund must be paid $1 billion in early May, and another $1 billion must be disbursed to cover eurobonds maturing in June.

Shlapakon March 5 called on holders of Ukrainian debt to discuss a restructuring plan. “Of course, we will make such an offer to our partners,” he said.

Austerity on the part of government has already begun. It cut a number of social programs and other projects to save $5.1 billion. These measures include a ban for state bodies to purchase automobiles, mobile phones and laptops. Moreover, some state-owned automobiles will be sold through the publicly held auctions.

Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk can be reached at verstyuk@kyivpost.com

News Source: www.kyivpost.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 10:29 AM in $15 billion, austerity, Brussels, EU budget, EU’s, European, government’s, package, promised, Ukraine