unions

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

In "1984," George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, protagonist Winston Smith is a low-level bureaucrat in the Ministry of Truth. His job: to "rectify" old newspaper articles in which Big Brother's predictions or promises turned out to be false. Once the articles are rewritten, the original text--and the truth they represent--is dropped down a pneumatic tube known as a memory hole, "to be devoured by the flames."

The European Commission has recently proposed a real-life version of this fictional device, though … Read more

The Obama administration wants better Internet privacy protection and is looking for new laws and a new government office to help in that effort, according to an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the Journal says the White House had asked the Commerce Department to create a report with recommendations on enacting new laws concerning Internet privacy. Currently in draft form, the final report is due to come out in a few weeks.

A special task force headed by Cameron Kerry, brother of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, has also been formed to help … Read more

The European Union wants stronger rules that would give people more control over how their personal information is used by online companies like Google and Facebook.

The EU has directed its European Commission arm to draft proposals for new rules governing online data, looking to address a variety of questions: What happens to your personal data when you board a plane, open a bank account, or share photos online? How is this data used and by whom? How do you permanently delete profile information on social-networking Web sites? Can you transfer your contacts and photos to another service?

The new … Read more

As I noted in a tweet yesterday, Microsoft's Office unit has scheduled an event for Tuesday in San Francisco. But folks hoping that the company is ready to move its productivity software to the iPad may be disappointed.

Instead, I'm hearing that the event will likely be focused on Microsoft's hosted online services, which today center around the awkwardly named Business Productivity Online Suite, a bundle of hosted Exchange and SharePoint. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says the next version is in testing and may also be getting a less cumbersome name--possibly the moniker "Union." (… Read more

While official U.S. response has been comparatively mild, the European Union's cybersecurity agency says Stuxnet represents a "paradigm shift" in critical infrastructure threats and that current defense philosophies need to be reconsidered.

In a statement released yesterday, Udo Helmbrecht, the executive director of ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency), said that as a "new class and dimension of malware," Stuxnet represents a "paradigm shift."

"The attackers have invested a substantial amount of time and money to build such a complex attack tool," he said. "The fact that perpetrators … Read more

Chrysler is taking its act on the road--10 vehicles, 10 weeks, 50 stops.

The marketing tour is to reach out to the 22,000 employees who work for Chrysler Group affiliate companies and suppliers such as Case New Holland, Comau, 3M, Union Pacific Railroad and Mohawk Industries.

The mobile showroom will feature the 2011 models of Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, Dodge Caliber, Ram 1500, and 2011 Ram 2500. And the 2010 models of the Chrysler 300S, Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Journey, Dodge Challenger, and Dodge Viper ACR.

The cross-country tour launched last week and will continue through … Read more

Cybercriminals are cranking out fake Web sites branded as eBay, banks, and other financial companies to the tune of tens of thousands every week, according to new research.

During a three-month study of its global malware database, Panda Security found on average 57,000 new Web sites created each week with the aim of exploiting a brand name in order to steal information that can be used to drain peoples' bank accounts.

About 80 percent of those were phishing sites designed to trick people into entering their login credentials or other … Read more

IBM and the European Union are teaming up to offer a better way to scan the massive collection of Europe's treasured historical documents.

Expanding on an existing collaboration project, Big Blue and the EU will now be working with more than two dozen libraries, research institutes, universities, and companies across Europe to help them digitize their rare books and documents.

The project known as Impact (Improving Access to Text), is using new tools and tapping into crowd sourcing to speed up the mass digitization process and ensure that the scanned documents are as accurate as possible. Impact will also … Read more

Regulators from the European Union are getting involved in the Federal Trade Commission investigation of Apple's business strategies that was opened up in June, according to a New York Post report on Tuesday.

The inclusion of the EU regulators means the investigation could now stretch "another four to six months" before the FTC reaches any official conclusions, according to the Post's sources.

The focus of the probe, which remains unconfirmed by the FTC, centers on Apple's App Store developer agreement. In early April, Apple adjusted its wording in a way that outright barred developers from using third-party development tools … Read more