Tag: UK

UK makes Google change privacy policy

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

OgleThe Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has made Google sign an undertaking to improve information about how it collects personal data in the UK.
The ICO said that following an investigation it found that Google’s search engine was “too vague” in describing how it used personal data it had collected.
The ICO said Google has signed a formal undertaking to make changes to its privacy policy so that it meets the needs of the UK Data Protection Act.
The ICO worked with other European data protection authorities, it said.
The enforcement officer at the ICO, Steve Eckersley, said: “This investigation has identified some important learning points not only for Google, but also for all organisations operating online, particularly when they seek to combine and use data across services.”
Google will have to make agreed changes by the 30th of June this year, and take even more steps over the next two years.
Google’s undertaking can be found here.

 

UK pledges to increase snooping with US

Posted on January 16, 2015 by - News

spyThe UK and the US are using the massacres in Paris as a pretext for “increasing co-operation” on snooping on internet users.

Prime Minister David “one is an ordinary bloke” Cameron said the two countries will set up “cyber cells” to share intelligence and conduct simulated attacks to test the defences of organisations such as banks.

Cameron is visiting Washington to tell them how to sort out their economy and security, and is due to have a second meeting with President Barack Obama today.

Cameron said that the two countries had  hugely capable cyber defences and the expertise and that is why they  should set up cyber cells on both sides of the Atlantic to share information, Cameron said.

The cooperation between Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency and the US National Security Agency will include joint war games, with the UK providing the Games Workshop figures and the US providing the rules, the polyhedral dice and the joints.

The first exercise later this year to involve the Bank of England and commercial banks in both the City of London and Wall Street. It is not clear who will be exercising but if you ask any bankers we have seen to do a push up the body bag count will be high.

“This is a real signal it is time to step up the efforts and to do more,” said Cameron.

The British leader said he also planned to discuss with Obama how the two countries could work more closely with big Internet companies such as Facebook and Google to monitor communications between terror suspects. This is of course something that Facebook and Google want nothing to do with, so chances are he will be talking about bringing in laws to force them.

One thing Cameron has not answered is that if the UK and US have such wonderful cyber ability and resources, how did the Paris attacks actually happen? It seems that the more snooping powers that the UK and the US demand, the less effect it has on the goal of preventing terrorism.

Amazon expands in EU

Posted on January 13, 2015 by - News

FireOnTheAmazonPosterOnline bookseller Amazon has created 6,000 new full-time positions in Europe in 2014 to respond to booming demand.

The company said that it now employed 32,000 permanent staff in the European Union, with the new jobs created in logistics centres, customer service, software development, supply chain management and design.

Amazon vice president for EU retail Xavier Garambois said the company was still investing and will be hiring even more in in 2015.

He said that customer demand in Europe was bigger than ever.

Amazon said around 1,200 of the new jobs were in Germany, its second-biggest market after the United States where it employs 10,000 warehouse staff plus more than 10,000 seasonal workers. Britain had the next most new positions with the rest spread around other countries.

It does not seem that Amazon is particularly concerned about the increased union militancy of its staff in Germany. Last year Amazon was been hit in Germany by a series of strikes over pay and working conditions.

Trade union Verdi has organized frequent strikes since May 2013 to try to force the retailer to raise pay for warehouse workers in accordance with collective bargaining agreements across Germany’s mail order and retail industry.

So far these issues have not been resolved and Amazon insists that its warehouse staff are logistics workers and that they receive above-average pay by the standards of that industry.

 

Ofcom says broadband coverage patchy

Posted on December 8, 2014 by - News

parliamentDespite the government maintaining that the UK is on track to deliver broadband just about everywhere in the country, regulator Ofcom said economics mean that’s just not going to happen.

Ofcom said in a report that communication services are used by an average UK adult for over half of their waking hours.

That means, coverage, capacity, and reliability of the digital infrastructure are of fundamental importance to both people and to businesses.

But, said Ofcom: “The economics of networks means there are parts of the UK that will not be fully served by the market.  There are also some services which may not be provided to all by the market.”

Either Ofcom or the government could intervene to make life better for people/

Ofcom said that fixed broadband technology is “almost universally available” – the average download speed is 23Mbit/s. But broadband speeds vary quite a lot, the organisatiion said.

The government aims to provide universal availability of at least 2Mbit/s – only three percent of UK sites fall below this.  But this causes difficulties for those affected.

Fifteen percent of UK households can’t get 10Mbit/s speed/

Ofcom said that the government target to deliver superfast broadband to 95 percent of premises by 2017 “is an aggressive target”.  About 18 percent of households still don’t access the internet, whether fixed or mobile.

UK high on Google purge lists

Posted on October 13, 2014 by - News

OgleThe European Court of Justice told Google that it had to remove information under its so-called “right to be forgotten” law and now it has emerged that one in 10 requests came from the UK.

According to the BBC, Google has taken down nearly 500,000 links from its search engine since May.  And, of those, 63,616 were UK requests.

Google doesn’t have to take down sites on requests, but people have a right to appeal if it decides not to.

Out of the 498,737 URLs it looked at, based on 146,357 requests, France accounted for the most requests, followed by Germany and then the UK.  Of the requests it received, Google removed 41.8 percent, and left 58.2 percent of them online.

Google said it gt a request from a defrocked vicar to remove two links covering an investigation of sexual abuse accusations.  It didn’t remove the pages.

Facebook accounted for most requests to remove references, followed by profileengine.com

British don’t understand the interweb

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News

ukflagA survey showed that UK users of the internet are still a bit confuzzled by the pesky thing.

Tata Communications revealed its report today – garnered from 9,417 people across the world – and including 1,770 internet users in the UK.

Two thirds of Brits, for example, think that the World Wide Web and the internet are one and the same.  And 62 percent suffer from anger or anxiety when they’re unable to connect to the net.

But 72 percent of Brits say the internet belongs to everyone, compared to Germany where 80 percent of people say the same. This is, technically, the wrong answer but demonstrates a sense of freedom.

People in the UK between 15 to 35 use the internet for six or more hours of day.  And five percent of 12 to 25 year old people say they couldn’t survive “even 15 minutes” without an internet connection.

What do people want to see next.  Fast downloads (35%) and smart cities (17%), it appears.  Only 15 percent are looking forward to wearable technology.

British Micro Focus merges with Attachmate

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

Merge-AheadMainframe software outfit Micro Focus has started proceedings to merge with Attachmate, owners of Novell and Suse Linux, for approximately US$1.2 billion.

The combined company should have yearly revenue of $1.4 billion, with more than 4,500 employees and more than 30,000 customers, Micro Focus said.

Analysts say that it is a good merger as both are established enterprise software vendors with global marketing reach and little overlap in either products or customers.

Attachmate hit the headlines in 2011 when it bought enterprise software vendor Novell in 2011 for $2.2 billion.

Attachmate’s parent company, Wizard Parent, will exchange with Micro Focus all of Attachmate’s 86 million public shares, traded on the London Stock Exchange and now worth about £729.6 million ($1.18 billion), for approximately 40 percent of shares in the combined company.

Based in Houston, the Attachmate Group controls what is left of Novell’s employee productivity, printing and networking software. It also has Attachmate’s own line of advanced software for terminal emulation, legacy modernization and managed file transfer and Suse, a line of enterprise Linux and Linux-based cloud software that was part of the Novell acquisition.  Also from its Novell buy out it controls NetIQ which is a line of identity, access and security management software.

Micro Focus is based in Newbury and sells software products for the enterprise, including an IBM mainframe modernisation software, COBOL development kits and a range of testing tools.

Micro Focus expects the deal to close by November.

Digital content worth $57 billion plus

Posted on February 20, 2014 by - News

ukflagThe worth of digital content in 2013 amounted to $57 billion, and that’s just for seven countries surveyed.

According to market research company IHS, global spending on digital games, apps and online movies was up by 30 percent from the 2012 figure of $44 billion. It looked at markets in the UK, USA, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Russia and France.

Online movies saw growth of 21 percent in 2013, with a worth of $8 billion.  The US is the clear leader in digital content spend, but there were large gains in game app spend in Japan and South Korea.

The UK has one of the strongest online music markets, said IHS. And it’s also the leading European country for total digital content spend and spend per capita.  While there was a strong growth in game apps in 2013 in the UK, that sector didn’t exceed the spend on online music.

The USA has the widest spread of content spend and the most devices per capita across the broadest range of devices, said IHS.

UK plc shows signs of growth

Posted on January 28, 2014 by - News

ukflagAfter a dreadful dose of the recession clap, it appears the UK economy is showing signs of growth.

It’s growth, but not much growth, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

In the fourth quarter of 2013 the economy grew by 0.7 percent. GDP is growing at 1.9 percent and that is the best UK plc has seen since 2007.

Industrial production fell, and the construction industry fell, too, during the fourth quarter. The other vital signs are a fall in unemployment, while inflation is wobbling along at the Bank of England’s targeted rate of two percent.

Tech sector outperforms rest of private sector

Posted on October 21, 2013 by - News

poundsAccording to new research from KPMG, the British tech sector has outperformed the rest of the private sector in terms of hiring and long-term outlook.

This is no new trend. KPMG notes that the tech sector has consistently outperformed the rest of the private sector over the last decade. There’s plenty of confidence, too. Growth expectations at tech companies are well above the private sector average.

KPMGalso introduced a new index to track job creation and growth and UK companies. The Tech Sector Purchasing Managers’ Intex keeps track of hiring and purchases – and it indicates that tech sector growth and output have been strong since the end of the recession. However, bigger outfits seem to be doing better than small tech firms.

Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 1

“Our new report Tech Monitor UK, the first of an ongoing series, reveals a number of key findings: importantly, it shows that the UK tech sector has generated solid rates of job creation over the last four years and that it has consistently outpaced other UK private sectors in creating jobs since the global financial crisis in 2008/09,” Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG said. “In terms of business outlook and confidence, we can take heart that tech companies in the UK are bullish about the next 12 months. Optimism is at one of the highest levels since data was first recorded in late 2009 and also continues the trend that tech companies are consistently more upbeat regarding hiring intentions than other UK sectors.”

The report also provides an interesting geographical snapshot of Britain’s thriving tech economy, which reveals that most companies are located in the South East of England and London. Nearly all are located near the M4, M3 or M25 and they have easy access to Heathrow and Gatwick.

“The findings of our report clearly highlight the link between investing in transport infrastructure and attracting businesses and therefore driving growth in the UK economy,” Aw commented.

Acer shuffles UK GM, North Europe ops

Posted on October 7, 2013 by - Moving People, News

acer-logo-ceTop notebook peddler Acer has chosen Marco Andresen as general manager in the UK, replacing Neil Marshall who was promoted to looking after North Europe operations.

Both Andresen and Marshall will cooperate on their current and new positions frmo 1 November, 2013.

Andresen is marketing director for the Nordics and country manager for Acer Sweden. He previously held biz dev and marketing roles at retailer Media Markt, as well as HP and IBM.

“The UK is a critically important market for us and one of the most competitive,” Andresen said.

Public sector outsourcing drops

Posted on September 13, 2013 by - News

kcalmAccording to research outfit Information Services Group (ISG), the public sector outsourcing market in the UK has taken a massive hit in the first half of the year. The ISG Outsourcing Index for EMEA found just €2 billion of outsourcing activity in the UK for the first half of the year. Last year the market was worth €4.6 billion.

However, Britain still leads the way when it comes to public sector outsourcing in Europe. The whole EMEA market for the first six months of was just €2.3 billion compared to €3.1 billion last year. In other words, the UK accounted for five sixths of all public sector outsourcing in EMEA this year.

The ISG figures track all outsourcing contracts with an annual value of €4 million or more. They include IT contracts, business process outsourcing, back office processes, but IT dominates with more than two thirds of all contracts. Public sector outsourcing now accounts for 41 percent of all outsourcing activity in EMEA, with Britain in a clear lead.

The top 15 companies winning these lucrative contracts are Accenture, AECOM, Arqiva, Arvato, BT, Capgemini, Capita, CSC, Grupo Ferrovial, HP, Interserve, QinetiQ, Serco, Thales and Tieto.

Data reveals surprising UK salary trends

Posted on September 9, 2013 by - News

poundsThe tech sector has long been lauded as the place to go for highly motivated individuals who believe the sky is the limit. While there are numerous success stories in every industry, the tech sector isn’t what it used to be.

So what are the alternatives? Well, if you’re not willing to jump through all the hoops and do all the internships, and you happen to be good with a wrench, plumbers can make some decent cash. The average salary for British plumbers is £27,866, just a tad over the national average of £26,462. However, in some parts of the country they can make quite a bit more. Many plumbers in London charge £90 an hour and successful, self-employed city plumbers can easily earn more than £50,000, reports Careerbuilder.

Secretaries in medical and legal fields can also make some nice dosh, while personal assistants can earn up to £24,067. Personal assistants in big multinationals can also end up north of £50,000, not bad at all. If writing is what ticks all the right boxes and you hope to be the next J.K. Rowling, think again. The average published author in the UK earns just £5,000 a year from writing, which means most can only rely on writing as an extra source of income or a hobby that pays for itself.

Bus and coach drivers are paid £22,701, which doesn’t sound too great for people who are entrusted with the safety of hundreds of passengers each day. Tram and train drivers make an average of £44,617, which is pretty good.

TV stars can be quite famous, but only a handful make loads of money. For example, professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing earn £30,500, despite the fact that they often spend up to 14 hours training real celebs.

The Prime Minister earns £142,500 a year, which does not sound like much – and it isn’t, especially given the fact that as many as 2,525 council staff across the country earn more than £100,000, while 42 local authority employees make more than £250,000.

August car sales up 10.9 percent on year

Posted on September 6, 2013 by - News

nissanleaf2gThe recovery may be slow and the situation on the job market is still pretty grim, but people and businesses are buying quite a few new cars. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, 65,937 new vehicles were registered last month in Britain.

This represents a 10.9 percent increase on August 2012 and total sales this year were 1,391,788, or 10.4 percent in the first eight months of 2012. Needless to say, this is very reassuring as it indicates people and businesses are growing more confident and they are willing to splash out plenty of cash on new vehicles.

Much of the growth appears to be coming from businesses, who didn’t invest much over the last few years. However, now that economic confidence is back, they are refreshing their fleets. The refresh is long overdue and SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes reckons fleet buyers are capitalising on attractive deals and new technologies.

The economic malaise started almost six years ago and many potential buyers were putting off their purchases for years. The auto industry also tried to adapt to the new climate, by offering better deals, extended warranties and even cheaper models designed specifically against a recession backdrop.

In terms of technology, EURO 5 engines with much lower CO2 emissions are standard now, which wasn’t the case in 2008. Many carmakers have extensively overhauled their powertrains for superior efficiency. Diesel engines are as efficient as ever, but downsized turbo-charged petrol engines were perhaps the biggest game changer, as they deliver much better efficiency and more torque than traditional, atmospheric petrol burners. Thanks to new alloys and a bigger emphasis on efficiency, new cars tend to be quite a bit lighter than their predecessors.

Superior efficiency, clever CO2 tax breaks and relatively long warranties can save quite a bit of money in the long run. Businesses and average people have come to appreciate this fact.

Toshiba gets slice of new NDNA pie

Posted on September 4, 2013 by - News

toshiba-logoToshiba has been approved as a vendor in the new National Desktop and Notebook Agreement (NDNA) to provide PCs to universities, colleges and affiliated research institutions.

Toshiba is not new to NDNA, it has been on board for twelve years, but now it’s expanding its reach in Lot 2 of NDNA.

Toshiba will work with resellers Viglen, European Electronique, Iansyst and Academia to deliver its range of B2B products to NDNA members and it will offer a few perks as well. All products sold under the programme will come with an three-year on-site warranty, as well as an extended three-year battery warranty for Portege and Tecra laptops. End-users will also be allowed to retain their hard drives, so they can dispose of sensitive data as they choose.

“We’ve been working hard with our partners on supporting the education sector for many years, and to be re-awarded a place on the NDNA framework enables us to continue this practice.” commented Mark Byrne, Head of Public Sector, Toshiba UK. “As technology’s influence within the education sector continues to grow, we are delighted Toshiba continues to play a central role in these advances.”

The new NDNA framework went live on the 1st of August. Toshiba also noted that it remains committed to other educations programmes in the UK and the continent, such as European Schoolnet’s iTec and the UK Education Ambassadors programme.