Italy gives Google 18 months to comply with privacy policy changes

Google been dealing with a long run of privacy and other legal issues in Europe, and now the Italian government says the company has 18 months to comply to its latest demands.

The search giant has had to deal with several other European Union nations regarding its unified data policy, and now it is being forced to obey local Italian privacy laws. The Italians do not want profiles made for them without direct consent and Google must accommodate requests from users to have certain data removed from its servers. Mountain View is being given two months to honor such requests and 6 months to have said data completely removed from back ups.

Early this year Google complied with the EU's demand to create a data removal request infrastructure for Europeans looking to have personal data taken out of Google search results. So it doesn't come as any surprise that the company will also comply with Italy's requests. 

The company told Reuters recently that it should have a clear plan ready for officials by late September. While fines of up to 1 million euros or more barely scrape the edges of the tech giant's bank account, the lengthy and possibly ugly criminal cases that could come as a result of the company choosing not to comply are likely something even Google wants to avoid.

Image via Shutterstock

Next Time Warner Cable to deliver one-gigabit broadband in Los Angeles by 2016 Prev Samsung's ridiculously expensive 105-inch curved 4K Ultra HD TV now up for pre-order

View the original article here

Verizon launches Smart Rewards program, but there's a (privacy) catch

Verizon has unveiled a nationwide loyalty program for its subscribers in which customers can earn points in a number of different ways that can be exchanged for a variety of rewards. The Smart Rewards program will be available to customers with post-paid accounts starting July 24 but before you decide to sign up, there's one big catch that you need to be aware of.

Activities that accrue points include signing in to the My Verizon online account management tool, paying your monthly bill, choosing paperless billing and using the Verizon Trade In program, just to name a few.

Once points have been accumulated, they can be used for things like discounts on hotel rooms, car rentals or select products from Verizon's catalog. What's more, points can also be used to bid on items in auctions hosted on Verizon's website.

Here's the big catch: customers wishing to participate in the program will need to enroll in Verizon Selects, a targeted marketing program that uses location, web browsing and mobile application usage data to generate advertisements based on user interests.

We're told that you can expect at least 10,000 bonus points for signing up for the Verizon Selects program. Users can leave the program at any time and remain in the Smart Rewards program although sticking around will net additional monthly bonus points.

Would you be willing to opt-in to such a marketing program and have you location and data usage knowingly tracked in exchange for reward points?

Next In China more users now access the internet with a mobile device than a PCPrev Start menu showed off in leaked Windows 9 images

View the original article here