Thursday, January 26, 2012

STOCK RESULTS JAN 26,12

Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out By Cecilia Kang, Published: January 24

Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices.The move will help Google better tailor its ads to people’s tastes. If someone watches an NBA clip online and lives in Washington, the firm could advertise Washington Wizards tickets in that person’s Gmail account.Consumers could also benefit, the company said. When someone is searching for the word jaguar, Google would have a better idea of whether the person was interested in the animal or the car. Or the firm might suggest e-mailing contacts in New York when it learns you are planning a trip there.

But consumer advocates say the new policy might upset people who never expected their information would be shared across so many different Web sites.A user signing up for Gmail, for instance, might never have imagined that the content of his or her messages could affect the experience on seemingly unrelated Web sites such as YouTube.Google’s new privacy announcement is frustrating and a little frightening, said Common Sense Media chief executive James Steyer. Even if the company believes that tracking users across all platforms improves their services, consumers should still have the option to opt out — especially the kids and teens who are avid users of YouTube, Gmail and Google Search.Google can collect information about users when they activate an Android mobile phone, sign into their accounts online or enter search terms. It can also store cookies on people’s computers to see which Web sites they visit or use its popular maps program to estimate their location. However, users who have not logged on to Google or one of its other sites, such as YouTube, are not affected by the new policy.The change to its privacy policies come as Google is facing stiff competition for the fickle attention of Web surfers. It recently disappointed investors for the first time in several quarters, failing last week to meet earnings predictions. Apple, in contrast, reported record earnings Tuesday that blew past even the most optimistic expectations.Some analysts said Google’s move is aimed squarely at Apple and Facebook — which have been successful in building unified ecosystems of products that capture people’s attention. Google, in contrast, has adopted a more scattered approach, but an executive said in an interview that the company wants to create a much more seamless environment across its various offerings.If you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services,Alma Whitten, Google’s director of privacy for product and engineering, wrote in a blog post.

In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience,she said.Google said it would notify its hundreds of millions of users of the change through an e-mail and a message on its Web sites. It will apply to all of its services except for Google Wallet, the Chrome browser and Google Books.The company said the change would simplify the company’s privacy policy — a move that regulators encouraged.Still, some consumer advocates and lawmakers remained skeptical.There is no way anyone expected this,said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group.There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns.Added Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus: It is imperative that users will be able to decide whether they want their information shared across the spectrum of Google’s offerings.Google has increasingly been a focus of Washington regulators.The company recently settled a privacy complaint by the Federal Trade Commission after it allowed users of its now-defunct social-networking tool Google Buzz to see contacts lists from its e-mail program.
And a previous decision to use its social network data in search results has been included in a broad FTC investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is private.
Federal officials are also looking at whether Google is running afoul of antitrust rules by using its dominance in online searches to favor its other business lines.
Claudia Farrell, a spokeswoman for the FTC, declined to comment on any interaction between Google and regulators on its new privacy changes.
http://www.infowars.com/3-d-facial-scans-being-sold-to-the-public-under-the-guise-that-it-could-help-children/

Don't like something about yourself online? You'll soon be able to delete it thanks to sweeping new EU privacy laws By Katie Silver Last updated at 5:26 PM on 26th January 2012

Soon millions of internet users will have the right to be forgotten and order companies to erase all the data it has on them, according to new legislation announced by the European Commission yesterday.The reforms will set strong limits on how companies such as Google and Facebook protect users' information, threatening those who breach the code with hefty fines.Viviane Reding, the EU Justice Commissioner, said 70 per cent of European citizens were concerned about how their information was used online.Without a trace: Reding claims 70per cent of Europeans are concerned about how their information is used online. With proposed new laws, they will have a right to have this data erased.

A breach of the rules could mean fines of up to two per cent of a company's annual turnover, or $1 million (£840,000).The changes also require a company to tell its customers within 24 hours if their information has been hacked.This change came in the wake of Sony's six day delay in telling Playstation account holders of a hack attack which saw the personal information of millions of customers stolen.EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding is driving the right to be forgotten bill.EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding drives the 'right to be forgotten' billThe proposals under the EU Data Protection Regulation are expected to become law by the end of 2013 if they are approved by all 27 EU member states and the European Parliament.The data concerned will be everything an individual has given the companies themselves, including posts, uploaded songs and photos, Mina Andreeva, press officer for the Justice Commissioner, told MailOnline.If you haven’t given your consent, you have the right to object,she said.If the person doesn’t comply, you can appeal to your data protection officer.The legislation will not affect freedom of expression and the media, with Article 80 protecting the rights of journalists and bloggers.
The bill could spell serious trouble for companies like Facebook whose business models rely on this data

The bill could spell serious trouble for companies like Facebook whose business models rely on this data.Individual member states will need to make laws that ensure this, Andreeva said.But the move has rattled major technology and Internet-based companies, with executives concerned the legislation will be almost impossible to implement in full or will do serious damage to their business models.Access to a certain amount of personal information - and the digital trace that people leave after using the Internet for any length of time - is a critical element in the business model of companies from Amazon to Groupon.Lawyers also say the EU risks setting up a legislative landscape at sharp variance with that of the United States, where federal law puts less of the burden of responsibility on companies.Some warn that the proposed new rules in their current form will be too complicated and expensive to implement:Setting businesses an unachievable goal, whether they are European or the US technology giants that the Commission unfairly seems to be seeking to curb, is unhelpful in terms of compliance and frankly bad for consumers, said Mark Watts, data protection partner at technology law firm Bristows.On the other hand Google, one of the biggest companies that could be affected, offered a cautiously positive reaction:We support simplifying privacy rules in Europe to both protect consumers online and stimulate economic growth, said Al Verney, the company's spokesman in Brussels.It is possible to have simple rules that do both. We look forward to debating the proposals over the coming months.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2092120/Don-t-like-online-You-ll-soon-able-delete-sweeping-new-EU-laws-data-privacy.html#ixzz1kac3SLOT

Google-phobics can just log off. They need to remember that every digital action has consequences By Dominique Jackson Last updated at 3:35 PM on 26th January 2012

I was sorely tempted to write this piece with my trusty fountain pen on an old piece of parchment and then jump onto my penny farthing to pedal the finished article up to Daily Mail towers and hand it over to the RightMinds team in person.Fortunately, thanks to the relentless pace of technological progress, I am able to gather my thoughts in the comfort of my own office and bash them out on a keyboard at my desk. Presently, I will push the publish button and, by the magic of the worldwide intra-webs, the finished blog post will appear on Mail Online.No matter how often I do this, it still feels to me like a minor miracle and I frequently give thanks for the computer and digital technology which has made all of our lives so much easier in so many, many ways.The latest outbreak of outrage is in response to Google¿s new unified privacy policy which comes into effect on 1st March.The latest outbreak of outrage is in response to Google¿s new unified privacy policy which comes into effect on 1st March

Am I worried that Google is about to link up every little bit of information it has gleaned about me from its various websites, so that it can bombard me with suggestions and adverts based on things I have already – willingly – tapped into their rather handy search engine, their hugely useful video clip site or my secondary email account? No, I am not worried. Not in the least.Anybody who is upset at the thought of an advert for cheap flights, for a new face cream or for a charming hotel in Tuscany popping up, as if unbidden, on their computer, has a very simple choice. They should simply foreswear the evil internet, just log off and while they are at it, why not go up to the attic where they might well have left their last dog-eared copy of the Yellow Pages.Privacy advocates have been grumbling for years about the sinister motives of the internet behemoths, of which the chief villain is, of course, Google. The latest outbreak of outrage is in response to Google’s new unified privacy policy which comes into effect on 1st March.The new policy will allow Google to combine information from any of its services to which you are signed in, treating you as a single user across all their products and thus vastly enhancing the quality of the information they hold about you.In a reversal of the company’s previous privacy policies, there is no opt-out on this new one. In short, if you are not happy with this collation of your data, you better not use Google any more. So far, so Big Brother. The end, as many critics have noted, of Google’s much vaunted Don’t be evil corporate motto.

But let’s get this clear. This move by Google cannot be compared to the genuine and huge-scale breach of privacy recently suffered by users of the O2 mobile phone network. In a suspected technical glitch, users of O2 and the associated Tesco and giffgaff networks found that their phone numbers were inadvertently sent to every website they had visited using their smart phones or mobile devices.Digital natives: Those born since 1980, who have no concept of a pre-internet world, have a very different sense of privacy than their elders.Digital natives: Those born since 1980, who have no concept of a pre-internet world, have a very different sense of privacy than their elders

The blunder has exposed O2 users to unwanted calls and spam messages. It highlights the vulnerability of so much of the technology we take for granted and shows us just how easily cyber security and data protection can be breached.We have a right to demand more vigilance from these companies but by the same token, perhaps we need to be a little more attentive ourselves? Have we been lulled into a false sense of security by the very ease and simplicity of all this technology? We have come to believe that the internet allows us to get something for nothing, all your information, music, entertainment and everything for free. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. We would do well to remember that every single time we go onto the internet, we are actually engaging in a transaction.
Just log off: if you dislike websites targeting adverts to you, you should simply avoid the net.Just log off: if you dislike websites targeting adverts to you, you should simply avoid the net.You receive your sought-for information in exchange for information you are in turn giving out – whether consciously or not. That includes your IP (internet protocol) address, your e-mail address, your preferred brand of toothpaste, your taste in music, food and holidays and even your taste in friends. Don’t want to publicise the latter? Better leave the computer/laptop/tablet/smartphone/mobile switched off.

You get to post your pictures on a forum such as Facebook or Flickr so all your friends around the world can see them with one click. In exchange for this facility, Facebook reserves the right to run little ads for things it reckons might well interest you in a little column down the right hand side. I never look at the ads myself. They seem to me to be a fair price to pay for the many ways in which I use Facebook. By the same token, by recklessly shopping on-line I seem to have let my supermarket into some of my best-kept secrets: the expensive loo paper; the cornucopia of dog treats; the sad predilection for cheap French burgundy; the occasional tub of premium ice cream.I suppose I could feel exposed? On the other hand, it certainly makes it much easier the next time I want to shop online and a list of my usual purchases pops up right away. It certainly saves all the bother of pushing round the trolley while squinting at a scribbled list – like I used to do.
Neither is any of this so-called spying particularly new. There has been a lively market in consumers’ personal details since the 20th century dawn of the advertising industry. Data protection laws may have been tightened of late but most advertisers can and will still sell your e-mail address and several other pertinent personal details for a song. You can pick up some databases for as little as a pound per thousand names.This move by Google cannot be compared to the genuine and huge-scale breach of privacy recently suffered by users of the O2 mobile phone network

This move by Google cannot be compared to the genuine and huge-scale breach of privacy recently suffered by users of the O2 mobile phone network.We are more than a decade into the 21st century and concepts of privacy and anonymity have altered dramatically in those ten years. For individuals of my generation and older, the frightening speed of the internet, its global reach and its sheer power can seem risky, threatening and perilous. It is no surprise that we feel vulnerable at the thought of Рinadvertently - disclosing so many personal details.For the kids, digital natives born since 1980, who have no concept of a pre-internet world, it seems normal, natural and they have no reservations whatsoever about posting all manner of personal information on whatever forum. Good for them, I say, although I do tend to advise the jobseekers to take down the more risqu̩ photos.Perhaps both cohorts would do well to remember that every digital action has a consequence and every digital action, from the simple process of logging onto a website to commenting on a newspaper article, is also a transaction. There is no such thing as a free lunch in our brave new connected world.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2092126/Google-privacy-policy-changes-Every-digital-action-consequences.html#ixzz1kadQf043

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU JANUARY 26,2012

09:30 AM +2.43
10:00 AM +55.35
10:30 AM +55.13
11:00 AM +31.33
11:30 AM +25.70
12:00 PM +37.50
12:30 PM +12.10
01:00 PM +15.59
01:30 PM +26.67
02:00 PM -2.58
02:30 PM -24.43
03:00 PM -34.89
03:30 PM -47.69
04:00 PM -22.33 12,734.63

S&P 500 1318.45 -7.61

NASDAQ 2805.28 -13.03

GOLD 1,721.30 +21.20

OIL 99.79 +0.39

TSE 300 12,464.32 -74.59

CDNX 1614.77 +10.72

S&P/TSX/60 710.29 -5.89

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +46 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +55 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,727.40.OIL opens at $101.32 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -34 points at low today so far.
Dow +55 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -34 points at low today.
Dow +55 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,902.60 (NOT AT CLOSE)

NATURAL GAS-THU -109 BCF

India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil
Debka File January 25, 2012


India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran’s total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets.By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank’s assets and the oil embargo which the European Union’s foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan. 23. The EU currently buys around 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

The vast sums involved in these transactions are expected, furthermore, to boost the price of gold and depress the value of the dollar on world markets.
Iran’s second largest customer after China, India purchases around $12 billion a year’s worth of Iranian crude, or about 12 percent of its consumption. Delhi is to execute its transactions, according to our sources, through two state-owned banks: the Calcutta-based UCO Bank, whose board of directors is made up of Indian government and Reserve Bank of India representatives; and Halk Bankasi (Peoples Bank), Turkey’s seventh largest bank which is owned by the government.
An Indian delegation visited Tehran last week to discuss payment options in view of the new sanctions. The two sides were reported to have agreed that payment for the oil purchased would be partly in yen and partly in rupees. The switch to gold was kept dark.India thus joins China in opting out of the US-led European sanctions against Iran’s international oil and financial business. Turkey announced publicly last week that it would not adhere to any sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program unless they were imposed by the United Nations Security Council.The EU decision of Monday banned the signing of new oil contracts with Iran at once, while phasing out existing transactions by July 1, 2012, when the European embargo, like the measure enforced by the United States, becomes total. The European foreign ministers also approved a freeze on the assets of the Central Bank of Iran which handles all the country’s oil transactions.However, the damage those sanctions cause the Iranian economy will be substantially cushioned by the oil deals to be channeled through Turkish and Indian state banks. China for its part has declared its opposition to sanctions against Iran.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources disclose that Tehran has set up alternative financial mechanisms with China and Russia for getting paid for its oil in currencies other than US dollars. Both Beijing and Moscow are keeping the workings of those mechanisms top secret.

Obama Signs Global Internet Treaty Worse Than SOPA-White House bypasses Senate to ink agreement that could allow Chinese companies to demand ISPs remove web content in US with no legal oversight Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com Thursday, January 26, 2012

Months before the debate about Internet censorship raged as SOPA and PIPA dominated the concerns of web users, President Obama signed an international treaty that would allow companies in China or any other country in the world to demand ISPs remove web content in the US with no legal oversight whatsoever.The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was signed by Obama on October 1 2011, yet is currently the subject of a White House petition demanding Senators be forced to ratify the treaty. The White House has circumvented the necessity to have the treaty confirmed by lawmakers by presenting it an as executive agreement, although legal scholars have highlighted the dubious nature of this characterization.The hacktivist group Anonymous attacked and took offline the Federal Trade Commission’s website yesterday in protest against the treaty, which was also the subject of demonstrations across major cities in Poland, a country set to sign the agreement today.Under the provisions of ACTA, copyright holders will be granted sweeping direct powers to demand ISPs remove material from the Internet on a whim. Whereas ISPs normally are only forced to remove content after a court order, all legal oversight will be abolished, a precedent that will apply globally, rendering the treaty worse in its potential scope for abuse than SOPA or PIPA.

A country known for its enforcement of harsh Internet censorship policies like China could demand under the treaty that an ISP in the United States remove content or terminate a website on its server altogether. As we have seen from the enforcement of similar copyright policies in the US, websites are sometimes targeted for no justifiable reason.The groups pushing the treaty also want to empower copyright holders with the ability to demand that users who violate intellectual property rights (with no legal process) have their Internet connections terminated, a punishment that could only ever be properly enforced by the creation of an individual Internet ID card for every web user, a system that is already in the works.The same industry rightsholder groups that support the creation of ACTA have also called for mandatory network-level filtering by Internet Service Providers and for Internet Service Providers to terminate citizens’ Internet connection on repeat allegation of copyright infringement (the Three Strikes /Graduated Response) so there is reason to believe that ACTA will seek to increase intermediary liability and require these things of Internet Service Providers,reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.The treaty will also mandate that ISPs disclose personal user information to the copyright holder, while providing authorities across the globe with broader powers to search laptops and Internet-capable devices at border checkpoints.In presenting ACTA as an international agreement rather than a treaty, the Obama administration managed to circumvent the legislative process and avoid having to get Senate approval, a method questioned by Senator Wyden.

That said, even if Obama has declared ACTA an executive agreement (while those in Europe insist that it’s a binding treaty), there is a very real Constitutional question here: can it actually be an executive agreement? asks TechDirt. The law is clear that the only things that can be covered by executive agreements are things that involve items that are solely under the President’s mandate. That is, you can’t sign an executive agreement that impacts the things Congress has control over. But here’s the thing: intellectual property, in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, is an issue given to Congress, not the President. Thus, there’s a pretty strong argument that the president legally cannot sign any intellectual property agreements as an executive agreement and, instead, must submit them to the Senate.26 European Union member states along with the EU itself are set to sign the treaty at a ceremony today in Tokyo. Other countries wishing to sign the agreement have until May 2013 to do so.Critics are urging those concerned about Obama’s decision to sign the document with no legislative oversight to demand the Senate be forced to ratify the treaty.

ALLTIME