Dead in Minehead, England. PUBLIC DOMAIN.
* GENERAL INTEREST
Nine European press agencies ( including: Agence France Press, Germany's Deutche Press, Britain's Press Association and agencies in Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium , Netherlands and Austria) are calling social media companies such as , Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Twitter, to pay copyright fees for using news content. This is happening while the European Union is debating a directive to make the Internet giants pay for the news articles they use or link to. The newspapers complain that the social media companies do not pay to gather the news, by having newsrooms, reporters and the like, but collect advertising revenues on their platforms. Newspapers are losing advertising revenues which is driving this fight. There is a concern by some EU Parliament members that the proposed directive may threaten free access to news for Internet users. However, the publishers say Internet users would not be touched, only those who "pocket" a disproportionate part of advertising revenue should share a significant part of those who actually produce the information.
To read more see:
This is not a new fight between publishers and social media platforms. In 2015, the IAJGS Records Access alert reported on Spain legislation for the Spanish newspaper publishers association giving the right to publishers the right to seek payment form any site that linked to their content with a "meaningful" description of the work. But Google removed the Spanish newspapers from news.google.com and within hours of Google removing all Spanish newspapers from the Google news index the Spanish media sites ay their external traffic reduced by double digits. Germany also tried a similar tax approach with Google. However, when the German publishers saw the dramatic decline in traffic after Google removed all German newspapers from their google news site, the German publishers rescinded their request deciding that a lot of free traffic was worth more than no traffic.
If the links are no longer available on search engines, genealogists would find it difficult to do genealogical searches.
Google established a digital news initiative to assist in Europe. Today, that initiative has projects in 26 countries and in the fourth round earlier this month , Google awarded more than €20m. To read more about the Digital News Initiative see: https://tinyurl.com/ychk6x97
As reported previously in the IAJGS Records Access Alert, some EU countries are opposed to other EU countries such as Ireland, Malta and Luxembourg which have more favorable tax systems. The finance ministers of ten countries want the Internet firms to pay taxes on their turnovers, rather than profits. This would increase the money paid to countries. Recently, a French Court said that Google was not required to pay over €1.1 billion in taxes made on AdWords as the company had "no permanent establishment in France"—as their European headquarters are in Ireland.
The EU Finance Ministers have discussed their desire to tax Internet firms more.
Due to the EU pressure, Facebook has announced it will no longer use Ireland as a means to slash its global tax bills. This week, Facebook announced, "the company will stop rerouting international advertising sales through its Irish-based subsidiary, with an aim to start making the necessary changes in 2018." This may pressure other multinational firms whose EU headquarters are in the tax favorable countries to follow what Facebook is doing.
Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
The IAJGS Records Access Alert has previously reported on the case before the Supreme Court, US v Microsoft. The case involves whether the US may require, with warrants, multi-nationals based in the US to provide data on persons whose data is based outside the U.S.
Friend of the Court documents were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by the European Union, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The EU and previous filing by Ireland said "that companies accessing email stored in the EU may run afoul of the EU’s new privacy regime, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), if they are compelled to turn over data stored in the EU under an Stored Communications Act (SCA) warrant instead of through established international legal assistance treaties." Rules under the GDPR limit law enforcement access to data stored in the bloc. GDPR Article 48 states that requests from foreign governments alone aren’t sufficient to justify transfers of personal data outside the EU, according to the EU brief. They asserted other channels be used to make law enforcement data transfer requests.
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation becomes effective May 25, 2018.
The UK on the other had said a pro-Microsoft ruling could weaken existing law enforcement data sharing agreements with the US.
The EU was not supporting either the US Department of Justice nor Microsoft in its brief. A ruling in favor for the US government may lead EU countries to adopt more stringent requirements that data be stored within their borders in an effort to limit US law enforcement access.
To read more about this see:
Within this article are links to the various friends of the courts briefs mentioned above.
To access the previous postings about the Microsoft ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals Second District, Ireland as the home base for majority of multinationals European headquarters , The EU's General Data Protection Regulation see the IAJGS Records Access Alert archives at: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts. You must be registered to access the archives. To register for the IAJGS Records Access Alert go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts. You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized. It is required to include your organization affiliation (genealogy organization, etc.).
Genealogists use social media including Facebook and WhatsApp. Many of us have ancestral roots in one or more of the 28 Members Countries that comprise the European Union. For these reasons we are posting this latest action regarding Facebook and WhatsApp.
The IAJGS Records Access Alert has previously posted about Facebook's What's App being told by the German Data Privacy Regulator ordering Whats App, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Facebook, from sharing German citizens’ data with Facebook. The order prohibits Facebook from collecting and storing data of German WhatsApp users and further orders all data already forwarded by WhatsApp to its parent Facebook to be deleted. Earlier this year a German Court refused to scrap the German regulator's order for Facebook to immediately stop collection of user data from WhatsApp.
The Article 29 Working Group, the organization of the 28- EU countries data protection regulators, which is headed by the French data regulator, has also requested information about the data transfer and asked the company to stop this transfer for targeted advertising purpose.
In May of this year, the European Commission fined Facebook €110 million over providing misleading information about its acquisition of WhatsApp. According to the European Commission, in their check as to whether mergers distort competition. Facebook told them that it was not able to link the accounts of Facebook users and WhatsApp users. However, the EU Commission says that is what happened last year and their investigation into antitrust cases concluded that Facebook misled the EU. Last year Facebook agreed to suspend its planned used of data from WhatsApp of its users in the United Kingdom.
Now the French Data Protection Regulator, National Data Protection Commission (CNIL), issued a formal notice to WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with its parent, Facebook, and asked them to comply with the Data Protection Act within one month. They have asked for samples of the French users' data transferred to Facebook. Facebook replied that as it is located in the United States, it considers itself subject only to US Legislation and could not supply the sample requested by CNIL. WhatsApp informed CNIL that data of its 10 million French users have never been targeted for advertising purposes.
To read more about this see the CNIL press release at:
(This notice are also available in French if one clicks on this url the reader has the choice of English or French)
History
Facebook purchased WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service, several years ago. At that time both companies said they would not share data between themselves. On 25 August 2016 WhatsApp announced on its blog that it was coordinating more with Facebook and using end-to-end encryption that subscriber messages were encrypted by default assuring that the subscriber was the only person who could read the message, not WhatsApp, not Facebook or anyone else. Further they stated, they would begin using data from its messaging app to allow advertisers to better target those users on Facebook and Instagram, in addition to allowing businesses to send messages to WhatsApp users directly.
****
Amazon is being threatened with a possible fine of € 10 million, by the Economic Ministry for "abusing its suppliers with a one-sided contract clauses". The French consider this an alleged abuse of power. The French state Amazon's "platform imposes an balanced relationship on its vendors" and may push them into bankruptcy". The French also complain that Amazon sellers take responsibility for problems like damaged packages, delivery issues and unfulfilled deadline, and can be kicked off the site if they don't comply. The city of Paris recently complained that Amazon Prime Now could "destabilize" its economy by hurting restaurants and grocery stores. In the meantime French President Macron recently helped open a new Amazon distribution center in the north of France. To read more see: https://tinyurl.com/ybmboyp9
Original url:
and
1. Why We Post What We Post on the IAJGS Records Access Alert
(IAJGS Public Records Access Alert)
We recently received an email from one of the persons who receives the IAJGS Records Access Alert through his genealogical society forwarding of the postings. His inquiry was why some "general news stories" were of interest to the genealogical society and why some postings are included on the IAJGS Records Access Alert. I thought my response may be of interest to the subscribers of the Alert as we totally understand that not every posting will be of interest to everyone who receives the Alert. It is very gratifying to learn that some genealogical societies representatives are forwarding the messages to their members. These representatives may "filter" the postings that they receive and forward selected postings , and that is to be expected as not every posting will be of interest to everyone.
1. Why report on items outside of the United States: The IAJGS Records Access Alert is a service provided by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). IAJGS is an umbrella group of 76 Jewish genealogical societies. Over one-third of our members are located outside of the United States. Therefore, it is an IAJGS privilege and responsibility to report on items of interest for all of our members. The IAJGS Records Access Alert is open to anyone affiliated or member of any genealogical organization, subscriber to any genealogical blogs or newsletters
Unless the person is of Native American origin, we in the United States all have immigrant backgrounds and doing our genealogical research takes us back to the countries where our ancestors originated. Therefore, for genealogical research issues, it is important to know what is happening worldwide. If restrictions are imposed on access to records, or restrictions are imposed on multi-national firms, all of which genealogists rely on for their genealogical activities, are important to report so we all are cognizant of issues that may affect our personal genealogical research.
When a regulation, law or court decision is posted on their countries' official site and the posting may also be found in a language other than English, we try to also include the information or link that the posting is available in another language. This is for the convenience of the IAJGS non-US based genealogical societies which may be located in a country where English is not their native spoken-language.
2. Global Impact The European Union's rules, regulations and court decisions affect access, anti-trust, privacy and taxation. It was the Court of Justice of the European Union 2014 decision on the "right to be forgotten" that has spread globally. Canada's Supreme Court ruled on global determination on "right to be forgotten". A federal district court in the US has opined that Canada may not impose their rules on Google in the US due to our First Amendment rights. There is a similar case before the Court of Justice of the European Union brought by France. Issues such as taxation of firms such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google, Microsoft etc. may in turn have tax ramifications in the United States. We live in a global genealogical world and some rulings have worldwide implications.
3. Privacy Increasingly privacy is of importance as it may affect our ability to access information important for our genealogical research, while recognizing the importance of personal information on the living to be somewhat protected. This may affect embargo dates on vital records. The IAJGS Records Access Alert tries to include those privacy issues which may affect our ability to access genealogical information.
The IAJGS Records Access Alert tries to cover a myriad of topics, all related to records access. It is not expected that every posting will be of interest to everyone. If the posting is not of interest to you—or your genealogical society—just use the delete key for that posting—hopefully the next postings will be of interest. However, it is also recognized that some "bad" issues of closing or affecting records access, not in your geographic area, are important to be universally known so that you may watch for similar restrictions being suggested in your area. If you learn of any opening or closing of access to genealogical records please share the information with us.
Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
* IRISH CENTRAL
Darina Allen's Irish Christmas chocolate log recipe
* FIND MY PAST
New and Improved: Australia Electoral Rolls
Following in my Ancestor’s footsteps.
New additions to the 1939 Register
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Vital Records 1706-1895
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Expenses of the Poor 1817-1838
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Newspaper Abstracts 1776-1800
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Warnings Out 1722-1769
Jersey Wills 1564-2000
SEARCH THE 1939 REGISTER »
Use ’39 for local research
* INTERESTING BLOGS
Lots of great reading to keep you busy...
‘Glen Ashley’ – 1 Chisholm Street Jenny Coates
The Worst Accident in the history of Australian Gold Mining and The Nicholas Family - Outback Family History
Genea-Musings: "I Understand You Do Genealogy Research"
The origins of the modern Christmas | Traces Magazine
James Wigley – 2017 Update – Kylie's Genes Blog
GOLD! I COULD HAVE BEEN RICH. - Pauline Conolly
Trove Tuesday – The Queenslander Cot Fund | Shauna Hicks History Enterprises
Last Christmas Cards | A SILVER VOICE FROM IRELAND
The Snow Came Liv
Advent Calendar of Medieval Religious Institutions: December 21st: Clonmacnoise historicalratbag (do check all the series beforehand)
Flowers on the stairs in Zia, Kos Island, Greece wanderlusttwins
The Heirloom Geneameme Alona
Deck the Halls: 2017 Christmas geneameme cassmob
and from my blogs...
That Moment in Time
Ghost of King William St, Ancient Celtic Christmas, Lawler's Suicides, MI 5 Files, FREE access Irish newspapers, ancient manuscripts secrets, FREE ebooks, priceless QLD collection, Kent BMDs, English Cause Papers, geomythology, Preserving historic St. John’s Cemetery - Parramatta, Storify closing, recognise US veterans buried in Ireland, Launceston’s Paterson Barracks, Domesday loan to Lincoln Castle, sorting 1937 Christmas Post (and it’s not Aust post catching up), History of Convicts Cockatoo Island, QLD State Archives holiday closures, and more than enough to keep you occupied over the holidays…
Headlines of Old
Declarations Re British Nationality - Naturalisation Lists -- 1947 Trove Tuesday 19th December, 2017 Series 1, Commonwealth Govt. Gazette 1947, names and addresses, treasure TROVE for researchers,
As They Were
MY CHRISTMAS WISH
More hours in the day
More hours in the week
More photos of graves
For the ancestors I seek..
A much longer lifetime
I need all I can get
There's so much to learn
And I'm not finished yet!
©Crissouli Dec 2017
