Information Policy

New Zeland: Internet piracy law to come into force

A controversial new law aimed at wiping out illegal downloading will come into effect from tomorrow.

Illegal downloaders can be fined up to $15,000 or have their internet connection suspended under the Copyright Infringing File Sharing Act.

But many are concerned the law means internet account holders, including universities and businesses, are accountable for the actions of everyone using their account.

Flawed Education System Holding UK Back In The Digital Knowledge Economy Says Google Boss Eric Schmidt

UK is losing out on making a mark in the digital age due to is flawed education system where there is no bridge between humanities and the sciences, the Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said while delivering the annual MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh.

At a time when a country's competitive edge is defined the by mathematical and scientific skills of its workforce, the UK has witnessed a "a drift to the humanities".  There is a damaging rift between the scientifc and the humanities "camps" that "denigrate" each other, the corporate boss claimed.

UK has failed to build on its rich history of innovation and advancing both humanities and the sciences at the same time. It was a time when the same people wrote poetry and built bridges," Mr. Schmidt said. "Lewis Carroll didn't just write one of the classic fairytales of all time. He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford. James Clerk Maxwell was described by Einstein as among the best physicists since Newton – but was also a published poet."

Pakistan to ban encryption software

Millions of internet users in Pakistan will be unable to send emails and messages without fear of government snooping after authorities banned the use of encryption software.

A legal notice sent to all internet providers (ISPs) by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, seen by the Guardian, orders the ISPs to inform authorities if any of their customers are using virtual private networks (VPNs) to browse the web.

Virtual private networks allow internet users to connect to the web undetected, meaning that they can access banned websites and send emails without fear of government interception.

Pakistan's 20 million internet users have previously been banned from popular social networks, such as Facebook, because of blasphemous material about the prophet Muhammad. All internet traffic in the country travels through the Pakistan Internet Exchange, which can be intercepted by the military and civil intelligence agencies. The move echoes a crackdown against encrypted communications across the border in India and in China.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority legal notice urged ISPs to report customers using "all such mechanisms including EVPNs [encrypted virtual private networks] which conceal communication to the extent that prohibits monitoring". Anyone needing to use this technology needs to apply for special permission, the notice said.

Authorities in Islamabad insisted that the ban on VPN access was intended to stem communications by terrorists.

However, banks, call centres and many other businesses use encrypted connections to communicate with their branches and customers, to protect sensitive data such as account numbers and passwords.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/pakistan-bans-encryption-software

EU funded project aims to make self-service terminals more accessible for all

An EU-funded project is aiming to make self-service terminals, such as public transport ticket vending machines or public information kiosks and cash dispensers, more accessible for the one in six Europeans who have a disability or the 87 million Europeans aged 65 and over. According to an EU study, only 38% of bank cash machines (automated teller machines or ATMs) across the EU provide voice capabilities to customers with disabilities, far behind the US (61%) and Canada (nearly all ATMs). The European Commission is contributing €3.41 million, half of the overall budget, to the "APSIS4All" project which aims to design and validate personalised interfaces, including contactless cards, to help overcome existing accessibility barriers. Trials will begin in cash dispensers in Barcelona, Spain from September 2011 and at ticket vending machines in Paderborn, Germany from January 2012, and will run for three years.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/992&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en

Vietnam govt embraces cloud

Giving shape to the government’s vision of becoming a leader in IT and e-government implementation, various departments and ministries in Vietnam have been using cloud computing to increase efficiency while cutting costs.

Usmanov, Mamut May Sell SUP Internet Holding, Kommersant Reports

Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Alexander Mamut plan to sell SUP, the holding company that owns blog service LiveJournal.com and the Internet news site Gazeta.Ru, Kommersant reported, citing people familiar with the plan.

Credit Suisse has been hired to find a buyer for the company, the newspaper said. Talks with Yahoo! Inc, which was considering a deal since the spring, have been postponed, Kommersant said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/usmanov-mamut-may-sell-sup-internet-holding-kommersant-reports.html

CZ: Online service launched to provide reports of healthcare events and charges

Citizens in the Czech Republic now have online access to a record of the significant events and transactions of their healthcare, it was announced on 22 July 2011.

Via their electronic health record (EHR; elektronické zdravotní knížky - EZK, in Czech), citizens can easily obtain online a report of their healthcare, which contains a list of health procedures, tests, visits to doctors and medicines prescribed, plus the charges and payments corresponding to them. If a citizen finds any discrepancy in their report, they can contact their health insurance company to ask for a revision of the apparent irregularities.

Using their EZK, citizens can in addition easily verify that their health insurance is valid and discover if they owe on health insurance. There are also data on the course of the insurance company's  business (since 2005).

Jiří Pašek, director of IZIP, said: "Newly in the [EHR] account of the policyholder is a summary of paid regulatory fees and charges for doctors and the pharmacy - any EZK user can quickly determine the amount, how much longer the charges are to be paid, and can also monitor whether the charges paid exceed the legally guaranteed maximum limit, which varies according to patient's age and which could be used subsequently to apply to their health insurance for the repayment of the excess."

The scheme is linked to the policy of increasing the transparency of the Czech healthcare system, which is one of the objectives of the health sector reform of 2011. To this end, it is important to provide citizens with an overview of the offered and available medical care. The General Health Insurance Company (Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna ČR - VZP ČR, in Czech), which is one of the country's not-for-profit health insurance companies, is therefore trying to provide its customers with the maximum amount of relevant information.

 

Background Information:

The Czech electronic health record (EZK) is a highly secure summary of patient health information in electronic form, accessible 24 hours a day via the Internet. It is a safe environment that links healthcare providers, patients and health insurers. It can be used to transmit medical information between the doctor and patient or between different doctors.

http://epractice.eu/en/news/5312543

DK: New digitisation strategy aims to make the public sector paperless by 2015

The Danish Government published its new digitisation strategy for 2011-2015 in August 2011. The central aim of the strategy is that by 2015 digital self-service solutions will be established as the normal way for citizens to interact with the public sector.

The new strategy, called 'The digital road to future prosperity', aims to phase out paper-based forms and postage. So citizens will use the Internet for all applications and notifications to the public sector, such as when they move, when they enrol a child in a nursery or when they order a new passport. In addition, all citizens and businesses will automatically be given a free digital mailbox to which all communications from the public sector will be sent. By 2015, therefore, interactions of citizens and businesses with the public sector will be entirely paperless.

Those citizens who are not proficient in IT will still be able to get help from local service centres or over the phone. Alternatively, they may choose to provide a digital power of attorney to their relatives, so that their family can easily help them, even across geographic distances.

The new digital strategy has a broad scope and aims to provide digital solutions across the public sector. It provides 60 individual initiatives, including:

• A commitment to, and investment in, IT and digital learning resources in primary schools.
• An action plan for the national dissemination of good and effective telemedicine solutions such as the monitoring of patients with diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This benefits patients since they are able to stay at home in a safe environment, as well as reducing the costs to the healthcare services.
• Vocational initiatives to provide businesses with easier paths to growth. This includes fully digital written communication between the public sector and businesses from 2013.

The initiatives of the digitisation strategy have a total budget of DKK 426.4 million (€57 million, approximately). Public sector digitisation initiatives will have DKK 325 million (€44 million, approximately), of which municipalities finance 40 % and regions 20 %, and DKK 101.4 million (€14 million, approximately) is allocated to vocational education digitisation initiatives. In addition, the Government has allocated DKK 500 million (€67 million, approximately) and the municipalities up to DKK 1 billion (€134 million, approximately) for IT in schools.

Denmark published its first digital strategy for the public sector in 2001. Since then, the Government, municipalities and regions have worked closely together on digitisation, and have initiated the transfer of resources from administration into public services, and have streamlined and automated workflows across the public sector. This has resulted in digital solutions such as the citizen's gateway borger.dk, the digital signature (NemID) and electronic invoicing (NemHandel). It is hoped that the new digitisation strategy will build on these developments and cement Denmark as one of the leading nations in eGovernment.

Claus Hjort Frederiksen, Minister of Finance, said: "There will be no need to spend billions on postage and manual handling. In recent years there has been a considerable emphasis on how we in the public sector organise ourselves, and in this digitisation is an important tool. Digital self-service means that parents can in peace and quiet inform the daycare centre that their children are in bed, or register a change of address with the municipality from their laptops instead of being left with forms and stamps. Digitisation makes life easier for the Danes and frees up billions. It is common sense, and I look forward to rolling out the strategy."

Charlotte Sahl-Madsen, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, said: "Digitisation offers citizens a much easier life since contact with the public sector can be managed via PC or smart phone around the clock and medical treatments can be undertaken via telemedicine. Danes are generally very good at using IT in everyday life, so for most it will be quite painless to make the digital method the citizens' first choice, but we must also ensure that those who are not so able in IT and modern technology are not left behind."

http://epractice.eu/en/news/5312648

Singapore: Beyond Information Sharing: The New e-Government Data Portals

James Kang, from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, reveals how Singapore’s e-Government Masterplan 2011 - 2015 is building common platforms to unite citizens, businesses and the public service.

Like the rest of the world, Singapore is standing at the forefront of the new technology frontier. According to the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Singapore’s mobile penetration rate is now 144%, meaning that many Singaporeans carry more than one mobile phone. Household broadband penetration rates are also at a record high of 82%.

EFF Supports Tunisian Internet Agency in Protecting Free Expression Online

Commentary by Jillian York

For years, Tunisians suffered in relative media silence as the Ben Ali regime curtailed digital rights, blocking websites and surveilling citizens. Then, thanks to the hard work of Tunisian free expression advocates who for many years worked to raise awareness of the country’s pervasive Internet controls, censorship fell along with the regime, with Ben Ali promising an end to filtering in his final speech on January 13 before fleeing to Saudi Arabia.