by Robert Whitcomb | Jul 11, 2016 | News
In this video, Bloomberg columnist Clive Crook presents some ideas on how the European Community can discourage other nations from following the United Kingdom’s exit.
To watch the video, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jul 11, 2016 | News
The European Union has approved a new agreement on how consumer data must be transferred with the United States. This brings to an end months of delay caused by fears about U.S. surveillance.
The so-called Privacy Shield, the new commercial data-transfer pact, had been tentatively agreed to by the E.U. and U.S. in February. It comes into effect July 11.
The E.U.’s top court had struck down the previous data-transfer agreement, Safe Harbor, because of fears of intrusive U.S. surveillance. This left such big U.S. companies as Google, Facebook and MasterCard in legal limbo.
To read The Guardian’s story on this, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jul 6, 2016 | News
The United Kingdom’s apparent decision to leave the European Union could be very bad news for China. The U.K. has been its biggest economic ally in the E.U. Further, Chinese investments in the U.K. itself may suffer. The British have long pushed within the E.U. for freer trade with China while other members have feared being economically overwhelmed by cheap imports from China.
“The U.K. leadership always said they would be the guys pushing for China’s interests in the West and the European Union,” a Western diplomat in Beijing not authorized to be quoted by name in foreign media told The Washington Post. “This is quite bad news for China.”
To read The Post story, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 30, 2016 | News
The European Union may not seem democratic but it is, mostly.
Amanda Taub writes in The New York Times:
“{W}hile defenders of the European Union have evidence to show that the bloc is democratic, this misses the point. Democracy, after all, is about more than elections. It’s also about accountability: whether the government is responsive to the citizenry.
“Yes, the European Union has elections (and, yes, like the United States, participation has been less than 50 percent for many cycles). But, in a functioning democracy, popular will is also expressed through mechanisms other than marking ballots.
“The European Union, perhaps in part because it was designed by technocrats rather than developing organically, does not account for or often even allow those mechanisms. And this is why, for many Europeans, the body does not feel {editor’s emphasis} democratic.”
To read the whole New York Times story, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 24, 2016 | AI World Society Summit
The European Union and the United States have agreed on changes to an important data-transfer agreement. The pact includes stricter rules for companies holding information on Europeans and clearer limits on U.S. surveillance.
E.U. member nations are expected to vote on the revised E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield in early July.
Reuters reported that “Cross-border data transfers by businesses include payroll and human resources information as well as lucrative data used for targeted online advertising….”
However, revelations of mass U.S. surveillance practices three years ago intensified distrust of such huge big U.S. tech companies as Facebook, Google and Apple.
“Brussels and Washington rushed to hammer out the data pact after the E.U.’s highest court last year struck down the previous system, Safe Harbor, on concerns about mass U.S. surveillance practices, threatening data flows that are key to billions of dollars of business,” Reuters reported.
“For 15 years Safe Harbor allowed both U.S. and European firms to get around tough E.U. data transferral rules by stating they complied with European privacy standards when storing information on U.S. servers.”
To read the Reuters article, please hit this link.
