After China and the US, India is the third largest internet market in the world. But India has philosophically aligned itself more with China in pursuing a policy of censorship toward publication of content deemed “offensive” or “objectionable” by individuals, groups or the government. A recently enacted law seeks to remove all such content from the internet in India. Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were sued under the law and had been arguing in Indian court that it was all but impossible for them to comply as a practical matter. The law makes online publishers potentially li [...]

Related Topics: Facebook | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Censorship | Microsoft: Outside US | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US

Several members of Congress continued to express reservations about Google's new privacy policy after a closed-door meeting on Thursday, with one House member saying that Google's handling of sensitive medical searches may violate HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Members of the House Energy and Commerce committee grilled Pablo Chavez, Google's director of public policy, and Google attorney Michael Yang for about two hours. After the meeting, several of the Representatives expressed their unhappiness with Google's answers on a variety of privacy issues -- quest [...]

Related Topics: Google: Health | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Google faces a $660,000 fine after a French court ruling that the company is abusing its dominant position in mapping by making Google Maps free. According to The Economic Times, the French commercial court "upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses." Bottin Cartographes provides mapping services for a cost, and its website boasts several business clients such as Louis Vuitton, Airbus and several automobile manufacturers. The French court ruli [...]

Related Topics: Google: Legal | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Outside US | Legal: General | Top News

Matt Cutts, international diplomat? That might be the more appropriate title for Google's chief spam cop. According to the Wall Street Journal, Cutts is in South Korea this week and, in a presentation Monday night for about 80 government officials, webmasters, lawyers and journalists, managed to singlehandedly convince some government reps to let Googlebot crawl and index their websites. One of those in the audience was Kang Min-koo, a senior judge in the Seoul High Court. When he saw the court's Web site was on Mr. Cutts' list of government sites that couldn't be indexed by Google – and [...]

Related Topics: Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: SEO | Top News

Several major UK entertainment industry groups are accusing Google and Bing of directing searchers to illegal content, and have proposed a "Code of Practice" for how search engines can better encourage consumers to locate legal content on the web. The groups are also calling for the UK government to help oversee how well the search engines administer the recommendations listed in the Code of Practice. As The Guardian reports, the groups involved in the proposal include the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the Premier League, the Publishers Associati [...]

Related Topics: Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Copyright | Microsoft: Bing | Top News