Google ad service raises privacy fears

Is Google's new targeted advertising service a boon to users, or is it Big Brother in disguise?

Google knows more about you than any organisation in human history. It can give you a bird’s eye view of your house, allow friends and family to track your every move through their mobile phones, and through its search engine - knows your likes, dislikes and even your vices. 

Google’s influence over our lives is set to grow further after it anounced today that it will track millions of people as they move through the internet in order work out what their interests are. Using that information, it will then provide targeted advertising to suit users' individual tastes. 

The move was met with fierce criticism. MPs described the new system as the introduction of “big brother” advertising, and leading privacy campaigners said the development was “dangerous”, calling on the government to launch an investigation into the activities of the company to see whether it was becoming too powerful. 

Google’s new system, which launched today, can track users who visit hundreds of thousands of sites that show Google advertising. By following users through these sites, Google is able to display advertising that is relevant to each individual user.

The company said in a statement: “If you love to travel and frequently visit travel-related websites, you’re more likely to see interest-based ads about vacations and travel deals as you surf the web.” 

“If you visit a website that sells pet supplies, you might see an ad from that particular pet supply website the next time you browse other sites showing interest-based ads from Google.” 

Other companies in the online industry have already embraced behavioural advertising of this sort, but privacy campaigners have consistently fought against tracking for advertising purposes. Google calls the system “interest-based advertising”. 

The way the system works is that Google will use a “cookie” - a small piece of data inside a web browser - to track people as they visit one of the sites that display Google advertising. Google will then assign those users to categories based on the content of the pages they visit. For example, someone may be pigeon-holed as a football fan, a car owner or soon-to-be parent, based on the information gathered by Google. 

Google said it would not categorise certain “sensitive” interests which including race, religion, sexual orientation and personal medical information. However, privacy campaigners lambasted the system. “Google might well hype their targeting system as a boon to pet owners, but the reality is that the service will track just about everything you do and everything you’re interested in, no matter how personal or sensitive,” said Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International. 

He added: “The privacy threat from Google is growing by the day. It is now time for parliament to launch a full investigation of the company.” 

In response, a Google spokesperson said: "This is completely untrue. We will not serve ads against sensitive categories full stop, and users can easily opt out of receiving any interest-based adverts entirely." 

The information commissioner’s office said they had been consulted on Google’s plans and were pleased that Google had given users a high level of control over how their information is used. 

But some were less convinced by the security of the system. “‘Big brother’ advertising will soon be hitting our computer screens thanks to Google,” said Tom Brake MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Home Affairs Spokesman. 

“There must also be clear rules about how long the data is kept for, who it can be accessed by and whom it can be sold on to.” 

Behavioural advertising has already been the source of fierce controversy. 

Phorm, a UK-based company that aims to show advertisements based on users’ internet history, has been investigated by the police and the government over privacy concerns. Phorm has attracted interest from UK Internet Service Providers including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, although no company has yet introduced the system.  continues here

Energy giants 'prey' on poor forced to use pre-pay meters

Energy companies are charging people on pre-payments up to £567 a year more than wealthier customers on internet tariffs, a government-funded consumer group has found.


In the last report before its abolition, Energywatch accused the energy firms of "preying" on poor customers who could not move to cheaper tariffs because of debt problems.

Poorer customers buy credits for their electricity and gas supply to load into the meters rather than pay monthly or quarterly. But the big six energy companies charge them far more than other customers. In January, The Independent disclosed that customers with pre-payment meters are charged 10 times more than the energy companies pay back to vulnerable customers on little-publicised "social tariff" schemes.

One million of the five million pre-payment customers are classed as being in fuel poverty by Ofgem, the electricity regulator.

In an investigation, the consumer group Energywatch found that British Gas – biggest of the big six energy companies and the one which spends the most on its social tariff – charged pre-payment customers the most of all its rivals, £567 more than its cheapest deal.

The disparity was next greatest at the German-owned firm E.on, which charged pre-payment clients £411 more than those on its cheapest deal, followed by Npower £378, ScottishPower £172, and Scottish and Southern £167. EDF has no equivalent tariff.

Allan Asher, Energywatch's chief executive, said: "Energy suppliers are preying on their poorest customers with discriminatory tariffs that squeeze extra revenue out pre-payment meter-users, which includes many of those least able to afford to pay their energy bills and least able to switch."

The Energy Retail Association said pre-payment meters offered customers flexibility and the ability to budget, and most were in rented homes, holiday lets and student accommodation. "According to Ofgem figures, just 20 per cent are used by the fuel poor," the trade body said in a statement. "Therefore equalising all tariffs would mean that those in fuel poverty who do not pay this way would subsidise the small percentage who are." continues here

TESCO’S SECRET WIND FARMS PLAN
Jason Groves

TESCO has approved secret plans to build wind turbines up to 50ft high at virtually all of its 2,000 stores.

The group is desperate to improve its green credentials and wants planning laws relaxed for its so-called micro-generation schemes.

Environmentalists last night questioned whether it was any more than window dressing to improve the image of a firm accused of exploiting farmers and unnecessarily transporting goods thousands of miles across the world.

John Constable, of the Renewable Energy Foundation, said the relatively small scale of the Tesco turbines meant they were likely to generate little useful power.

“It is just PR,” he said. “Provided the turbines don’t cause a problem for neighbours then it is not doing any harm but it’s a pretty meaningless gesture in terms of the impact on the environment.

“I don’t object to it but I hope Tesco is also doing something more substantive behind the scenes because there is a danger this just becomes tokenism.”

Wind farms have divided environmentalists in rural areas. Some claim they are vital in tackling global warming but critics say they are noisy, ugly eyesores generating little electricity and creating a hazard for birds.

The Tesco initiative threatens to bring the debate to towns and cities across Britain.

Tesco’s wind turbines will be much smaller than the 350ft commercial towers springing up at rural sites across the country. But at up to 50 feet they could still have a significant impact on the skyline......article conts (-)

India, China new African colonialists

Hungry for oil and minerals, India and China have become Africa's new colonialists, exploiting the world's poorest continent in the same way as its old European masters, billionaire financier George Soros said.
European nations' scramble for resources, from slaves to diamonds and gold, led them to subjugate Africa's peoples under colonialism.

After independence swept the continent in the 1950s and 1960s, they often supported corrupt and dictatorial regimes.
Over the last decade, amid concern over minerals funding wars from Angola to Democratic Republic of Congo, Western governments and multinationals have largely accepted the need for accountability and transparency in extractive industries.
But India and China, which are pumping billions of dollars of loans and investment into Africa, have not, Soros said.
"They are in the process of repeating the mistakes that the colonial powers have made," Soros said in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

"There's a certain irony of the old colonialists recognising their past mistakes and trying to correct them, and the new colonialists then repeating those mistakes."
Soros, whose charitable foundations disbursed $45 million in Africa last year, hoped that Chinese firms would toughen their criteria for investment, although he said Chinese demand for raw materials had brought benefits to the continent, underpinning its strongest growth in four decades.
"It's the basis on which the economic outlook for Africa is somewhat exempt from the current global downturn," he said, assessing Africa outlook as "quite good".
"I don't expect a global recession. I expect a recession in the developed economies but there are some very positive dynamics for the developing world, particularly resource-rich areas," said Soros, who was ranked as the world's 80th richest man by Forbes magazine last year with a fortune of $8.5 billion......Article conts (-)