Google has been facing an ongoing investigation [JURIST report] by the EC over allegations of manipulation of search results to highlight Google's own products and services. The company has faced separate antitrust inquiries in Italy, Germany and France in addition to the EC probe, in which Microsoft-owned Bing subsidiary Caio was one of the original complainants. Microsoft's Wednesday announcement of a formal complaint against Google came the same day the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [official website] announced a settlement [JURIST report] with the company over charges that it breached consumer privacy rights and was misleading during the launch of its social networking platform, Google Buzz [website]. These reports come on the heels of last week's New York court ruling rejecting a proposed settlement [JURIST report] in the 2005 suit brought by authors and publishers over the Google Book Search project. Additionally, in October Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart [official website] announced that Google had violated [JURIST report] the country's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act [text, PDF] by unintentionally capturing personal information while taking pictures for its Google Street View feature [website]. Investigations were also initiated in Australia, South Korea and Spain [JURIST reports].

Al-Assad announced last week that the government would consider ending the state of emergency [JURIST report]. Also last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] urged the Syrian government [JURIST report] to ensure protesters' rights to peaceful expression and to work toward addressing their concerns instead of responding with violence. As demonstrations continued throughout the country last week, the government freed 260 political detainees [AFP report] in an overture to the protesters. Last month, Syria appeared to be lifting the four-year-old ban [JURIST report] on social media sites Facebook [website; JURIST news archive] and YouTube [website; JURIST news archive] as a concession to avoid popular upheaval [DP report]. The Syrian protests may have been inspired by the recent unrest in Egypt, where nearly 400 people were killed and 5,500 were wounded during three weeks of protests that led to the February resignation [JURIST report] of former president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile].

This case stems from the controversial ability of the EPA to control the regulation of greenhouse gases. Last year, the US Senate [official website] defeated a resolution [materials; JURIST report] aimed at limiting the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act [materials]. The US Supreme Court affirmed the EPA's ability to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act in its 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report]. In its ruling, the court held that if the EPA could show a link between greenhouse gas emissions and public health and welfare, then the act gives it the power to regulate emissions. The EPA announced last December [JURIST report] that it had found that greenhouse gases "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations," and that emissions from motor vehicles contribute to greenhouse gas pollution.

Ohio is the most recent in a string of anti-union laws sweeping the US. Yesterday, the New Hampshire House of Representatives [official website] passed an amendment to their current budget that would require public employees to make concessions automatically [AP report] or become at-will employees. Earlier this month Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker [official website] signed a bill [JURIST report] that limits the collective bargaining rights of public sector employees. The law is currently enjoined, but legislators have gone forward with publishing it [JURIST report], a step toward the law's enforcement, despite judicial concern. Indiana Democrats defeated an anti-union bill [Indiana Star report] by fleeing the state until the bill missed a procedural deadline. Legislation is pending in Nebraska [Daily Nebraskan report] to prohibit state employee collective bargaining and to dismantle the Commission of Industrial Relations (CIR) [official website], a non-partisan arbiter in state labor disputes. Measures limiting unions are also in committees in Michigan, Tennessee, and Florida.

In September, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice [official website] struck down several provisions of Canada's anti-prostitution laws, citing the danger they generate for sex workers, but a stay was issued [JURIST reports] pending appeal. That suit was also launched in 2007 by the Sex Professionals of Canada [advocacy website] challenging three provisions [JURIST report] of the Canadian Criminal Code [text] as inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom [text]. While prostitution itself is not illegal in Canada, § 210, § 212 and § 213 of the Criminal Code prohibits the keeping of "common bawdy houses," engaging in communications for the purpose of soliciting sex and living "on the avails" of the sex trade.

Davis drew attention to the alleged iniquities of the military commissions system in 2007, when he penned a noted op-ed [text] for the New York Times [official website] about his experience as chief prosecutor. Later that year, Davis publicly said that he was pressured to use classified evidence [JURIST report] against defendants while heading serving as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo. He further claimed that the push to use classified evidence stemmed from certain military officials' desire to keep the trials closed and complained that Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann [official profile], legal adviser to the Convening Authority [official backgrounder] for the trials, should not have been supervising his work. The issue played a role in his resignation [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The Czech Republic's Constitutional Court [official website, in Czech] on Thursday overturned [press release, in Czech] parts of a controversial data retention law that obligated telecommunications companies to maintain records of their customers' internet and telephone usage. The court found that paragraphs 3 and 4 of § 97 of the Electronic Communications Act [official materials], which compelled telecommunications companies to keep records of their customers' calls, faxes, text messages, internet activity, and emails for up to 12 months, are unconstitutional [text, PDF, in Czech]. The Czech law stems from a European Union directive [text, PDF] requiring member states to gather telecommunications data in an effort to combat terrorism and organized crime. The retained data at issue was not the actual content of the communications [CNA report], but rather information showing when and with whom people were communicating.

The balancing of telecommunications monitoring for security purposes and privacy concerns has been a struggle post 9/11 in both Europe and the US. Last year, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court overturned a law [JURIST report] that required telecommunications providers to store information on telephone calls, e-mails, and Internet use for six months for use in possible terrorism investigations, citing privacy issues. In January 2010, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official websites] are not required to confirm or deny the existence of electronic surveillance records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text]. In April 2009, the DOJ announced that it had limited [JURIST report] the NSA's electronic surveillance, but maintained that the information being received was still important. In 2006, it was revealed that the NSA was collecting phone records [JURIST report] was from major telephone companies to study the calling patterns of millions of Americans in an effort to detect terrorist activity.

We believe that US engagement in the Human Rights Council has directly resulted in real progress. In our two years on the Council, we've not been happy with every outcome, and have firmly denounced Council actions we disagree with, but the Council has made important strides. Much work remains to be done for the Human Rights Council to sustain the gains of the last two years and to fully realize its potential, and the United States looks forward to continuing our efforts to do so.

The US was among 18 countries elected [JURIST report] to the council in May 2009. When the US first took its place [JURIST report] on the UNHRC, the Obama administration faced opposition [Reuters report] from pro-Israel groups. Several other human rights organizations criticized [JURIST report] the council's election process, alleging vote trading and a lack of effective candidates. In April 2009, the State Department released [JURIST report] its commitments and pledges to human rights in anticipation of May election. The US announced its intent to seek a seat on the council [JURIST report] earlier that month, hoping to affect more change by working from inside the council than by boycotting the effort. The UNHRC was created [JURIST report] in 2006 to replace the much-criticized Committee on Human Rights, at which time the Bush administration declined to seek a council seat or participate in its proceedings due to a perceived anti-Israeli sentiment by the UNHRC. The US's current term on the council will expire in 2011.

When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them. This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations.

Google has recently faced a number of allegations of violating privacy laws, both in the US and abroad. In November, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [official website] confirmed that it is investigating [JURIST report] Google to determine if it violated communications laws when its Street View [JURIST news archive] vehicles inadvertently collected private user data, including passwords and URLs, over WiFi networks. In October, the FTC ended an inquiry [JURIST report] into the company's data collection through Street View cars after Google assured the FTC that it did not use any of the collected data and announced that it was committed to compliance with privacy laws [text], instituting new training on privacy principles and appointing a new director of privacy. In addition to investigations within the FCC and the FTC, Google has come under investigation for privacy breaches relating to its Street View program in the UK, France, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Spain [JURIST reports]. Most recently, a Berlin court ruled [judgment, in German; JURIST report] that Google Street View is legal in Germany. The ruling was narrowly focused on property rights and did not address larger data protection issues the company is currently confronting.