Articles about Europe

Tech giants like Google or Amazon might end up paying a lot more tax in Europe, if a new EU initiative goes through.

A debate concerning whether tech giants should pay taxes wherever they produce value has been scheduled for September 15.

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That Facebook is causing ripples when it comes to privacy will come as little surprise to anyone. Like Google, the social network and its users have an interesting relationship with privacy. Facebook is facing a particular problem in Europe, and the latest installment of the saga sees the company being fined €1.2 million ($1.44 million) by the Spanish data regulator AEPD.

After an investigation into Facebook, the regulator found that the company had gathered sensitive personal data without consent, and this constituted a very serious infringement of data protection laws. The investigation also identified two "serious" violations, including tracking users through the use of Like buttons embedded in non-Facebook pages.

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Every fifth business in the UK has "no idea" if their corporate policies are enough to comply with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is according to a new report by Citrix, which investigates the obstacles companies in the UK are still facing when it comes to complying with GDPR.

The report says there are three major roadblocks --data sprawl, a huge influx of personal customer information and uncertainty around data ownership.

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With the clock still ticking down to the May 2018 GDPR deadline, new research has once again revealed a worrying lack of awareness among many executives.

A study by Alfresco and AIIM found that one in five (21 percent) of senior executives said that they had little or no idea about the effect GDPR would have on their business.

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The UK government has confirmed that it plans to comply with existing European laws on data handling and sharing, even after Brexit.

A paper published by the GOV.UK government website said that the EU needs to recognize how the UK is looking for an early agreement in finalizing its plans.

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Businesses struggling to get their operations in order before the GDPR kicks in in May 2018 have been given a welcome helping hand from Rackspace.

The company has revealed the launch of a new Privacy and Data Protection (PDP) offering which will help companies ensure they are up to speed with the latest data protection legislation.

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The world of banking is about to be transformed. In January 2018, the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will be incorporated into UK law, obliging banks to provide other organizations with access to their customers’ financial information. Known colloquially as the "open banking" directive, the new law is intended to end the monopoly of big banks and to provide consumers with a much wider range of financial services providers to choose from.

There are many technical and cultural difficulties that banks will need to overcome in order to comply with the new directive, but perhaps the most serious challenge is how to implement PSD2 without bringing themselves into conflict with another impending piece of legislation; the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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The one-year countdown to the European Union’s most significant cross-border data protection regulation is ticking by swiftly. Coming into enforcement from May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will profoundly alter the way businesses and consumers look at the data they hold. Being informed about why it’s coming into play and what the regulation is solving will help both organizations and individual citizens understand how they should approach data protection, whether this is becoming GDPR compliant or understanding their new data privacy rights.

Up until the proposed GDPR, businesses operating in the EU worked under inconsistent data protection regulations, varying from country to country. A UK based marketing agency that sent its contact lists to telesales firms in Germany or Spain would have to understand the different data laws of each individual nation and adapt their processes accordingly, in many cases hiring consultants to ensure they complied with the appropriate regulations.

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One of the main reasons why Google Glass failed to take off was because of its crazy price tag. It was hard to get consumers to embrace a new type of gadget when it cost $1,500 and offered questionable benefits.

The new Glass Enterprise Edition may be after a different crowd, but its price has not changed much. A listing on a partner vendor reveals that business customers can expect to pay €1,550 (about $1,830) for a single device with a bundled app.

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Facebook, Twitter and Google have failed to impress EU authorities with their proposed revisions to user terms. The three companies have been under pressure to amend their terms to bring them in line with European law.

The European Commission and consumer protection authorities wrote to the tech giants last month, giving them until July 20th to submit proposals about their respective social networks. The companies have until September to implement changes that satisfy Europe, or fines could be handed out.

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A tenth of all UK businesses have moved entirely to the cloud, according to a new Breaking Barriers 2020 report from Fuze.

The report is based on a poll of more than 900 CIOs, and claims that the UK keeps lagging behind North America and the rest of Europe in terms of adopting cloud services. The report compares the UK with American firms, 45 percent of which have fully made the migration to cloud.

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The fact that cybercriminals like to be paid in Bitcoin to unlock encrypted files or sell private information gives the impression that criminals must be major users of cryptocurrency. However, a new report from the European Commission suggests that the reality is very different.

Criminal organizations rarely use cryptocurrency (or, as the European Commission calls it, virtual currency) for illegal activities, like financing terrorism and money laundering, because it requires a certain level of technical expertise that hampers adoption.

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5G mobile networks have come a step closer to reality following a new announcement from Qualcomm and EE today.

The two companies have teamed up with Sony to show off Europe’s first commercial Gigabit LTE network, offering quicker mobile download speeds than ever before.

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The UK is lagging behind much of Europe when it comes to seeing the real benefits of cloud services, new research has claimed.

Despite businesses on the continent fully embracing the cloud, companies in the UK appear more reluctant to make the move, meaning they are potentially missing out on some major advantages, according to a report from Barracuda.

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Today the European Union gave Apple a great gift to celebrate iPhone's 10th anniversary (on June 29th): The ridiculous, record $2.7 billion fine, and associated sanctions, against Google that once again demonstrates the EU's small-minded oversight that wrongly regulates evolving technologies in a big world. The adverse antitrust ruling finds that the online titan favored its own online shopping services (and paying customers) over rivals.

In February 2010, with the EU Competition Commission's preliminary investigation starting, I rightly called "Google a dangerous monopoly". Seven years later, the competitive landscape has dramatically changed, and rapidly evolves. The Commission's action is too much, too late, and in the short-term can only benefit rivals like Apple that will dominate online activities and commerce as what we knew as traditional web search becomes something else.

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