by Honor Mahony

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has warned that it will crack down on unscrupulous companies targeting vulnerable online consumers if no improvements are made to protect personal data from abuse.

Speaking at a conference on rise of the amount of personal data collected and used for commercial purposes, consumer affairs commissioner Meglena Kuneva on Tuesday (31 March) pointed out that citizens' online data - such as visited websites, purchases made and online friends - are routinely being used without their knowledge.

Businesses take the information to build up a profile of consumers so they can target the person who appears to be in debt with predatory loans, the person who appears to have a medical condition with certain drugs or even customise services in terms of price, based on whether the customer is likely to be late in payments, fall ill, or return goods that they buy.

"The new reality that internet consumers are paying for services with their personal data and exposure to ads," said the commissioner, adding that "most users are not aware of this."

The huge growth in internet use both by companies and consumers coupled with a lack in corresponding policy means the World Wide Web is "turning out to be the world 'wild west,'" she said.

While personal data is what makes the internet as an advertising-supported service "go round", actual privacy policies are either non-existent or at best intransparent, but "avoiding tracking is currently technically difficult if not impossible."

The commissioner pointed out that privacy policies are "not always easily accessible" and in some cases, a consumer is asked to submit personal data before the privacy policy is given or sometimes a web service will include a clause under which the consumer agrees to share data with other commercial partners.

"You are signing up to give these unnamed people your data," said Ms Kuneva.

Consumer policing of the internet is not enough, the commissioner, with most people not taking the time to read the long terms of online services.

She pointed to a recent "uproar" on Facebook. The social networking service quietly included a clause in their terms and conditions meaning that its users agreed to hand over their personal data to Facebook in perpetuity. It already had 175 million users before the change was noticed.

She called for "principles of transparency, clear language, opt-in or opt-out options that are meaningful and easy to use," allowing people to partake in an economic transaction "without selling [themselves] indiscriminately as commercial fodder to the entire world."

On commercial policies, she called for "guiding principles" with a recent study showing that people no longer use their own judgment when faced with an supposed expert.

At Tuesday's meeting, the commissioner raised a series of questions on the matter, including concerning when a commercial message oversteps the line to look like personal advice and to what extent companies should be allowed to discriminate among consumers in terms of price or message.

She left the questions unanswered but called on industry to establish a framework for "acceptable behaviour" or the commission, as a regulator, "will not shy away from [its] duties."

The commissioner also noted that the most confident group of internet users - 15 to 25-year-olds - use the internet even though they do not trust it, something the commissioner likened to "drinking ... water while thinking it might be slightly toxic."

Source: www.euobserver.com

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The United Nations-backed tribunal to try the perpetrators of a massive car bomb blast that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri has appointed its main officials and adopted rules of procedures and evidence, the court announced today.

“The Special Tribunal for Lebanon now has the necessary tools to deal promptly and efficiently with the first files concerning the Hariri case, which the Lebanese authorities are expected to transfer in the next few weeks,” its President, Antonio Cassese of Italy, said in a statement.

In consultation with President Cassese, who was the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed François Roux of France as the head of the defence office.

The Tribunal, an independent body located in The Hague, is designed to try those accused of recent political murders in Lebanon, particularly the February 2005 assassination of Mr. Hariri and 22 others in downtown Beirut.

Daniel Bellemare, a Canadian prosecutor and former head of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) into the murders, assumed his office as Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal when it began operations earlier this month.

The judges and registrar of the court have already been sworn in as well, and rules governing detention and the directive on assignment of defence counsel have been adopted, the court said.

According to the Tribunal, President Cassese and Daniel Fransen of Belgium, the Pre-Trial Judge, will soon take up their duties on a full-time basis.

The other judges, for the Trial and Appeals Chambers, will take office on a date to be determined by the Secretary-General, in consultation with the President, and their names will be announced once all security measures are in place, the Tribunal said.

The investigation continues under the guidance of Prosecutor Bellemare, and a trial will take place when he has sufficient evidence is in place, according to the court.

Source: www.un.org

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by Heather Tomlinson

Sir Richard Needham, the former Conservative Trade minister, and Tony Caplin, a director of investment bank Durlacher, have settled a legal claim from IEQ, the internet firm where they were once directors.

Sir Richard Needham, the former Conservative Trade minister, and Tony Caplin, a director of investment bank Durlacher, have settled a legal claim from IEQ, the internet firm where they were once directors.

Both paid £27,500. The claim had demanded the recovery of severance payments of £25,000 made to the two men, plus interest and costs. IEQ had also claimed damages for their part in a £377,400 investment in Isle of Wight Cable and Telephone Company (IoWCT), which the writ had alleged was "in breach of their fiduciary duties". Greg Lloyd Smith, the new chief executive of IEQ, said he was dropping the IoWCT issue relating to the two men. They left IEQ shortly after the investment was made.

Mr Smith is still pursuing a claim worth around £1m against other former directors including John Mackay, the chief executive of Seymour Pierce, Chris Foster, a director of building company Wiggins Group, and John Shaw.

The lawyer representing Sir Richard and Mr Caplin said: "For purely commercial reasons, Sir Richard recognised that the costs of fighting the multi-party litigation would be considerable and offered the sum of £27,500 to settle the entire claim. That payment was accepted by IEQ plc and the litigation against him has now concluded."

The continuing legal action demands the return of investments made in Radio First and IoWCT, plus damages, costs and interest. A £200,000 investment in Radio First is said to have led to a "conflict of interest" because Radio First's broker and adviser was Seymour Pierce, where Mr Mackay was the chief executive. It is also alleged that Seymour Pierce and several of IEQ's directors had shareholdings in IoWCT, introducing "conflicts of interest". IoWCT is now in administration.

All the remaining defendants have said they are contesting the action.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

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Despite the launch of “one of the largest anti-piracy flotillas in modern history,” the clan-organized taking of vessels off the coast of Somalia will only cease when order is restored to the Horn of Africa nation, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report released today.

“There is a critical need to tackle the problem of piracy with a multifaceted approach” to ensure that the political process, the peacekeeping efforts of the African Union (AU) and the strengthening of institutions work in tandem, Mr. Ban writes to the Security Council.

He encourages Member States to place increased emphasis on ending lawlessness in war-torn Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, through support to the Djibouti peace process and the AU Mission in the country, known as AMISOM.

He adds that it is necessary for the international community to use the existing international legal framework effectively to apprehend and prosecute suspected pirates and consider further strengthening it.

The 111 attacks in the critical sea corridor linking the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean that occurred in 2008 represent an increase of nearly 200 per cent over the previous year, Mr. Ban states, adding that there have been seven reported incidents in 2009 to the end of February.

Of great concern to the UN, Mr. Ban says, is the safety of vessels carrying food and other aid on which some 2.4 million Somalis depend, 95 per cent of which arrives by sea and which was threatened by the 2007 attack on a ship contracted by the World Food Programme (WFP).

According to the report, the most prominent pirate fleets are based in the fishing communities of north-eastern and central Somalia and are organized in a way that reflects clan-based social structures.

As an example, the report describes the “Eyle Group” based in Puntland, which at the end of 2008 was holding six vessels hostage with their crews and was estimated to have earned $30 million in ransom up to that point.

“It is widely acknowledged that some of these groups now rival established Somali authorities in terms of their military capabilities and resource bases,” Mr. Ban says.

In the past few months, however, political leaders in Puntland and neighbouring States have vowed to defeat the pirates, and a raft of countries, in addition to groups such as NATO and the European Union have contributed to a policing fleet under the legal framework of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and various Security Council resolutions.

Measures include protective escorts for WFP-contracted vessels with the result that no further attacks have been made on such ships, the Secretary-General says, urging that long-term continuity for those escorts be assured.

The UN Secretariat, Mr. Ban affirms, will continue to perform a central role in information and coordination in combating piracy and he urged all Member States to keep it updated about their anti-piracy activities.

Source: www.un.org

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by Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Swiss-based trading firm RosUkrEnergo is in the coming week aiming to lodge a hefty legal claim against Ukraine's Naftogaz, in what could start a domino effect ending in interruptions to EU supplies.

RosUkrEnergo shareholders say Naftogaz has illegally seized 11 billion cubic metres of its gas, which was being held in Naftogaz storage tanks. Ukraine customs has already rubber-stamped the change in ownership of 6.3 billion cubic metres.

Naftogaz took the disputed volume in lieu of a €1.7 billion RosUkrEnergo debt, which it bought as a financial instrument. Eleven billion cubic metres of gas is worth around €3 billion at today's market prices.

Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, who controls 50 percent of RosUkrEnergo, is preparing to file the complaint at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce before 24 March. Russia's Gazprom, which owns the other 50 percent of RosUkrEnergo, must agree for the claim to go ahead.

"It's theft," Robert Shetlar-Jones, the CEO of Mr Firtash's holding company, Group DF, told EUobserver.

"As a private Swiss company faced with having assets expropriated by a Ukrainian government-owned company, it undermines faith in the Ukrainian government. It undermines faith in the Ukrainian government as an energy partner for Europe."

The dispute has already impacted EU energy supplies. RosUkrEnergo customers in Poland, Hungary and Romania are still receiving less gas than expected despite the end of the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis in January, which saw 18 EU states cut off.

Lawyers predict RosUkrEnergo and Naftogaz will settle in a few months' time. But if Naftogaz agrees to pay hundreds of millions of euros in damages, the cash-poor company could find it hard to make its monthly payments to Gazprom.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on 5 March warned that if Naftogaz defaults, Gazprom will stop supplies to Ukraine, threatening EU transit in a repeat of the January events.

If the Firtash-Gazprom claim goes ahead, it could also damage the political entente between Mr Putin and Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which underpins the pair's agreement on 19 January to restart Europe's gas supply.

Rocking the boat

Meanwhile, the RosUkrEnergo case is aggravating Ukraine political instability at a time when the country is fighting the risk of sovereign default and preparing for a major EU donors conference on 23 March on renovating energy infrastructure.

Two weeks ago, secret police loyal to President Viktor Yushchenko raided Naftogaz to prove that Ukraine customs illegally transferred ownership of RosUkrEnergo stocks. EU officials are hearing rumours that Ms Tymoshenko might be arrested in connection with the affair.

Opinion polls show that pre-Orange Revolution prime minister Viktor Yanukovych has a narrow lead ahead of upcoming presidential elections. Ms Tymoshenko is losing popularity, especially in Western Ukraine, where she is perceived as being too Putin-friendly. Mr Yushchenko has just 2 percent to 5 percent approval.

But with 30 percent to 40 percent of people saying they "don't know" or are "against all" the candidates, Internews-Ukraine analyst Volodymyr Yermolenko says all bets are off on who will take power over the next year.

"Ukraine has a democratic future. What is in danger is not so much formal democracy, but the rule of law and independence of the judiciary," he said.

Source: www.euobserver.com

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