Google’s obfuscation on privacy

It’s the only one of the big Internet companies that doesn’t put a link to its privacy policy on its home page.

Indeed, Google believes so strongly that adding the phrase “privacy policy” to its famously Spartan home page would distract users that it has picked a fight with an advertising trade group over the issue.

One of the core principles of the group has been that its members should provide “clear and conspicuous notice” of how they collect and uses data. This has been interpreted to mean that a link to a site’s privacy policy should be on its home page.

Google, however, told the group that it would not comply with that rule.

You only have to look at Google’s privacy policy center page to realize it has good reasons not to provide a link on its home page. (see image above) There are slightly different policies covering each type of service with which Google users engage. Just looking at the page makes me go ‘What the heck?’

The report goes on to say that despite Google’s non-compliance, it’s application to join the Network Advertising Initiative is likely to be approved. The reasons are far from clear and NAI policies are said to be ‘in a state of flux’ - whatever that means. The author speculates that:

Some Internet executives wonder whether it is getting ready to start some sort of targeting system that might help its graphic ad network compete better with AOL’s more successful Advertising.com and others that do make use of information about users.

Privacy is an ever present issue for all users and business in particular. Why then does Google NOT have an issue in putting a link to its iGoogle privacy page which contains links to the prrivacy center? Confused? You should be.

I have said before that Google’s ToS are inconsistent though others disagree. It now seems Google’s attitude to presenting information required by a self-regulating body with which one would have thought it would wish to play ball is also inconsistent.

Man's £5 debt repaid 39 years on

A Sheffield man who lent a penniless Australian tourist £5 to pay for a ferry trip in 1969 has been repaid his debt nearly 40 years later.

While Jim Webb was out, a card and £200 was hand delivered to his home by Gary Fenton, to repay the money he borrowed when they met in Ostend, Belgium.

A note inside read: "To Jim Webb, a good man. From Gary Fenton, a tardy payer of debts."

Mr Webb, 72, has appealed for Mr Fenton to get back in touch.

Mr Webb and a friend were travelling around Europe in April 1969 when they met the Australian traveller, then in his early 20s, at a ferry port in Ostend.

He said: "A young man came up to us and said he hadn't got enough money to get back to England and would we lend him £5 and he'd repay us as soon as he could afford it."

The three men travelled back to England and when they parted Mr Fenton took Mr Webb's address, but he never heard from him.

In this day and age promises are made and promises are broken and you lose your faith in human nature Jim Webb

Then on Sunday, he returned to his home in Bradway to find the surprise card.

Mr Webb said: "I was quite emotional when I read it. In this day and age promises are made and promises are broken and you lose your faith in human nature.

"This was a lovely gesture. Forty years is a long time - it must have been preying on his mind that he hadn't repaid his debt.

"He said he was giving me £200 as that was £5 for every year that had gone by."

Mr Webb said the card explained how Mr Fenton, who now lived in Sydney, had come across his address while looking through some old papers.

His note said he had decided to pay him a visit and repay his debt while on a trip to London.

Mr Webb, who is giving the £200 to charity, said: "He didn't leave an address or telephone number, just an email address which I have tried but so far I haven't heard back.

"I am very sorry I was not in on Sunday... he would have been very welcome here. Hopefully we will be able to make contact, it would be wonderful to meet up again."

Russian tanks enter South Ossetia

Russian tanks have entered Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, says Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Georgia has been fighting separatists with ties to Russia in order to regain control of the province, which has had de facto independence since the 1990s.

Russian troops in the South Ossetian capital said their artillery had begun firing at Georgian forces, Russian news agencies reported.

Russia's president earlier promised to defend his citizens in South Ossetia.

Moscow's defence ministry said more than 10 of its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia had been killed and 30 wounded in the Georgian offensive. At least 15 civilians are also reported dead.

'Clear intrusion'

Amid international calls for restraint, Georgia's president said 150 Russian tanks and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili says he is willing to agree an immediate ceasefire

He told CNN: "Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory."

Mr Saakashvili, who has called on reservists to sign up for duty, said: "This is a clear intrusion on another country's territory.

"We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight," Reuters new agency quoted him as saying.

Later, Moscow's foreign ministry told media that Russian tanks had reached the northern outskirts of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

The Georgian interior ministry said Russian jets had killed three Georgian soldiers at an airbase outside the capital, Tbilisi, during a bombing raid on Friday, Reuters news agency reported.

I must protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are. We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished Dmitry Medvedev Russian President

Russia denied any of its fighters had entered its neighbour's airspace.

Moscow's defence ministry said reinforcements for Russian peacekeepers had been sent to South Ossetia "to help end bloodshed".

Amid reports of Russian deaths, President Dmitry Medvedev said: "I must protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are," Interfax news agency reported.

"We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished. Those responsible will receive a deserved punishment."

'Ethnic cleansing'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was receiving reports that villages in South Ossetia were being ethnically cleansed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

Mr Lavrov added in televised remarks: "The number of refugees is growing. A humanitarian crisis is looming."

Russia said it would cut all air links with Georgia from midnight on Friday.

Meanwhile Interfax quoted South Ossetian rebel leader Eduard Kokoity as saying there were "hundreds of dead civilians" in Tskhinvali.

Witnesses said the regional capital was devastated.

Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, told AP news agency: "I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars. It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."

SOUTH OSSETIA MAP & TIMELINE 1991-92 S Ossetia fights war to break away from newly independent Georgia; Russia enforces truce 2004 Mikhail Saakashvili elected Georgian president, promising to recover lost territories 2006 S Ossetians vote for independence in unofficial referendum April 2008 Russia steps up ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia July 2008 Russia admits flying jets over S Ossetia; Russia and Georgia accuse each other of military build-up 7 August 2008 After escalating Georgian-Ossetian clashes, sides agree to ceasefire 8 August 2008 Heavy fighting erupts overnight, Georgian forces close on Tskhinvali

US President George W Bush spoke with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the crisis while they attended the Beijing Olympics.

Later, the US voiced support for Georgia's territorial integrity and its state department said it would send an envoy to the region.

Nato said it was seriously concerned about the situation, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on all sides to show restraint.

The European security organisation, the OSCE, warned that the fighting risked escalating into a full-scale war.

Georgian Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili told the BBC it wanted to ensure that any civilians who wanted to leave the conflict zone could do so safely.

International Red Cross spokeswoman Anna Nelson said it had received reports that hospitals in Tskhinvali were having trouble coping with the influx of casualties and ambulances were having trouble reaching the injured.

Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said Georgia had simply run out of patience with attacks by separatist militias in recent days and had had to move in to restore peace in South Ossetia.

Truce plea

Georgia accuses Russia of arming the separatists. Moscow denies the claim.

Russia earlier called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to respond to the crisis, but members failed to agree on a Russian statement calling on both sides to renounce the use of force.

The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says Russia has always said it supports the territorial integrity of Georgia but also that it would defend its citizens. Many South Ossetians hold Russian passports.

Hundreds of fighters from Russia and Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia were reportedly heading to aid the separatist troops.

Ozone benefits from treaty

Scientists say they have produced the first conclusive evidence that the ozone layer is being restored to health.

Ozone layer will not be completely healed for at least 50 years

A team of US researchers has found that the rate at which the layer is being destroyed has markedly slowed down.

However, they say it will not be completely healed for at least 50 years.

They believe the recovery is due to the success of an international ban on damaging chemicals.

Protocol success

The scientists analysed data collected over the last 20 years by three satellites and three instruments based on the ground.

They found that in the upper stratosphere - where the topmost slice of the ozone layer resides - the rate at which ozone is disappearing has slowed down markedly.

We fully expect it to stop declining entirely in the next few years Professor Michael Newchurch

"It has been declining at about 8% per decade for a couple of decades, and now it's only about 4% per decade," says the scientist who led the research, Professor Michael Newchurch from the University of Alabama.

"We fully expect it to stop declining entirely in the next few years."

The recovery is due to the success of one of the first global environmental treaties, the Montreal Protocol.

Established in 1987, it banned the chemicals responsible for ozone damage, notably CFCs, used predominantly in aerosols and refrigerators.

Long time frame

Although the upper reaches of the ozone layer have taken their first steps towards regaining full health, the situation at lower levels is more complex.

Here, climate warming is changing temperatures and wind patterns, which is delaying recovery.

Altogether Professor Newchurch's team believes it will be the second half of this century before the ozone can return to a proper balance.

Newchurch: Recovery more problematic at lower altitudes

But they say the success of the Montreal Protocol shows what could be done with other international treaties for other even more serious issues such as climate change.

"The lesson is that with these large, global environmental problems - it is very important to take the first geopolitical steps even if it is not the full scientific solution," Professor Newchurch told the BBC.

"Science works - peer-reviewed science works, because scientists are driven to the right answers," he added.

"We continually challenge each other to present the evidence before we accept the results. And just as we have come to understand the ozone problem, so we will come to understand the global warming problem and the air and ocean pollution problems, which in many ways are more serious and more difficult than the ozone issue."

Ozone is a molecule that is composed of three oxygen atoms. It is responsible for filtering out harmful ultra-violet radiation (less than 290 nanometres) from the Sun.

Ozone is constantly being made and destroyed in the stratosphere, about 30 km above the Earth. In an unpolluted atmosphere, this cycle of production and decomposition is in equilibrium.

But CFCs will rise into the stratosphere where they are broken down by the Sun's rays. Chlorine atoms released from the man-made products then act as catalysts to decompose ozone.

Complex chemistry

This is most pronounced at high latitudes.

The whole process requires complex meteorological conditions that are peculiar to the polar stratosphere during the long, dark winter months.

It is only when these conditions have been established and the sunlight returns in the polar spring that the infamous Antarctic ozone hole, for example, starts to appear.

Ozone thinning above the Artic is not as extensive as in the southern polar region.

Different atmospheric conditions are also in play which means the patterns of ozone depletion are dissimilar as well.

Details about the latest research were released at the US Government meeting on Earth observation, and will be published in the American Geophysical Union's Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.

Dr Ross Salawitch, an atmospheric research scientist with the US space agency, commented: "This research provides further demonstration that the connection between the release of CFCs at the ground and depletion of upper stratospheric ozone is occurring in a manner consistent with our fundamental understanding of the underlying chemistry, and that the worldwide ban on the production of CFCs and other halogenated halocarbons that was initiated by the Montreal Protocol is having the desired, positive effect on Earth's ozone layer."