PRIVACY

EU data protection authorities have urged U.S. Internet search giant Google to shorten the period it stores images from its controversial Street View web service because of privacy concerns.

Switzerland said it would no longer accept untaxed money into its banks as it tries to ease pressure on its $2 trillion offshore banking industry from key trading partners seeking to boost tax revenues.

Google said on Wednesday that a ruling against its top Italian executives attacks the principles of freedom of the Internet and poses a serious threat to the web.

The best weapon against the online thieves, spies and vandals who threaten global business and security would be international regulation of cyberspace.

The use of full-body scanners at British airports may breach human rights laws, the country's equality commission said on Tuesday, potentially undermining the latest weapon against terrorism.

Google Inc said it may create a stand-alone version of its Buzz social networking product but won't separate Buzz from its Gmail service, a linkup that has spurred controversy over privacy.

The government argued on Friday that it should be allowed access to people's cell-phone records to help track suspected criminals.

Switzerland must consider the automatic exchange of tax information with European Union governments if Swiss banks are to have unlimited access to EU markets, the country's finance minister said in an interview published on Sunday.

The United States is unwilling to re-enter talks to alter a key deal struck with Switzerland to end a damaging tax case against Swiss banking group UBS AG , the U.S. ambassador in Berne was quoted saying in a Swiss Sunday paper.

A top Democratic senator said on Tuesday he has asked 30 U.S. companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google's decision to no longer cooperate with Chinese Internet censorship efforts.

Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt on Friday expressed his company's dislike of China's censorship policies, even as it pursues opportunities to remain in the country without censoring its search engine.

Canada's privacy czar, who got Facebook to agree last year to better protect users' personal information, will launch a new investigation over complaints that the changes sometimes make things worse.

The Swiss government said it was sure it could resolve a legal impasse threatening a deal struck by the U.S. and bank UBS to hand over data on clients the U.S. suspects of dodging taxes.

The Swiss government needs to resolve the legal impasse which threatens to derail a deal with U.S. tax authorities over UBS client data, the bank's chairman Kaspar Villiger was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

A client of Swiss bank UBS won an appeal to prevent her account data from being given to the United States as part of a U.S. probe into possible tax evasion among wealthy bank customers.

Congress should enact a law laying the groundwork for protecting consumers who use the Internet cloud to store data before states come in with an unwieldy patchwork of conflicting legislation, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith on Wednesday.

Microsoft Corp. has pulled almost every version of Office from its own online store in compliance with a court order after a patent dispute with Canadian firm i4i.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that online privacy is no longer the social norm as users of social networking sites like Facebook become more comfortable sharing information on the Internet.

The chief whistleblower in the UBS AG tax secrecy probe entered prison to serve a sentence he considered unfair, hours after a Swiss court ruled the bank should not have been forced to turn over client files to government investigators.

The Swiss financial regulator broke bank secrecy law last year when it ordered UBS to hand over the files of nearly 300 clients to U.S. authorities, a Swiss court said on Friday.

A U.S. judge on Monday upheld the prison sentence of a key informant in the tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG and ordered him to start serving his 40-month term as scheduled this Friday.