| Michael White's Conference Daily: Law and order Law and order debates at Conservative conferences once brought forth a crowd of activists demanding a return to capital punishment. No more, it appears. Michael White reports from Birmingham's ICC where party members gave a cautious welcome to plans to get prisoners into work and scale down the numbers of people entering prison. New Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke says the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke is the man to make much-needed reforms in the prison system.Home affairs editor Alan Travis has watched the day's developments – he says that law and order debates at the Conservative conference have changed beyond recognition.And as the season comes to a close, columnist Jonathan Freedland detects an ever-present shadow cast over all three party conferences: that of Tony Blair.Leave your thoughts below.Michael WhiteAlan TravisJonathan FreedlandPhil Maynard guardian.co.uk |
Murder accused 'shook baby girl' A man goes on trial accused of murdering his girlfriend's six-week-old baby girl after various attacks in Aberdeen. bbc.co.uk |
Children to be protected from risks of reality shows with new laws Reality television shows face curbs on their use of children amid concerns that young participants are being exploited by programme-makers. telegraph.co.uk |
Google investigated over household data privacy breaches Watchdog has launched inquiry after company admitted copying emails and passwords while setting up Street View serviceThe UK privacy watchdog has launched an investigation into Google after it admitted copying household computer passwords and emails from unsecured wireless networks, when taking photographs for its Street View mapping service.The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it would investigate, in light of a report in Canada that the company had potentially violated the privacy of thousands of Canadians. Similar findings are also emerging from other countries.Google's admission came after Canada's privacy commissioner found Google had captured highly sensitive personal information with its Street View mapping cars. Seven privacy regulators in other jurisdictions have also analysed the data and revealed the full extent of what was copied, with reports due shortly from many others.Fears over the data Google had collected first surfaced in May, with the company initially saying the it was only "fragmentary".In a statement published on its official blog, the Californian-based company said it accepts that in some cases complete emails, usersnames and passwords had been inadvertently collected from unsecured wireless networks.Alan Eustace, Google's vice-president of engineering and research, said: "We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and I would like to apologise again for the fact that we collected it in the first place. We are mortified by what happened."He added it was clear from the external inspections that "while most of the data is fragmentary, in some instances entire emails and URLs [web addresses] were captured, as well as passwords".Alex Deane, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: "As if building up a database of photographs of millions of people's private homes wasn't enough, the news that Google has also harvested email addresses and passwords is nothing short of outrageous."Alma Whitten, Google's new director of privacy said: "We are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks. We are now strengthening our internal privacy and security practices with more people, more training and better procedures and compliance."The ICO said it had examined "samples" of payload data submitted by Google in May, and could not find evidence of compromising personal information, but would now re-examine.An ICO spokesman said: "Earlier this year the ICO visited Google's premises to make a preliminary assessment of the payload data it inadvertently collected while developing Google Street View. While the information we saw at the time did not include meaningful personal details that could be linked to an identifiable person, we have continued to liaise with, and await the findings of, the investigations carried out by our international counterparts."They added: "Now that these findings are starting to emerge, we understand that Google has accepted that in some instances entire URLs and emails have been captured.We will be making enquires to see whether this information relates to the data inadvertently captured in the UK, before deciding on the necessary course of action, including a consideration of the need to use our enforcement powers."‬GoogleGoogle Street ViewMapping technologiesInternetComputingData and computer securityWi-FiPrivacyCaroline Daviesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Nurse 'switched off life support' An agency nurse working for the NHS switched off a Wiltshire patient's life support machine in error causing brain damage, it is revealed. bbc.co.uk |