In The Papers 2 October

02-10-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Mandatory reporting considered for missing data | New John Banville excerpt available online

The Irish Times reports that Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is considering introducing mandatory reporting in cases where personal data goes missing on stolen or lost laptops and other devices. The new legislation would apply to government departments and all other State agencies, as well as to banks and other entities. Some 35 government devices containing the personal data of members of the public have been lost or stolen this year. These figures were contained in replies to parliamentary questions tabled by Labour's spokesman on education and science, Ruairi Quinn, as noted by ENN on Wednesday.

The paper also says that the first chapter of John Banville's new novel, 'The Sinking City', has been made available for free online. The chapter from the eagerly awaited new novel can be viewed as part of a new literary journal published online by the University of Manchester, and the work is described as "a novel in progress" on the site. The chapter can be viewed at www.themanchesterreview.co.uk.

The same paper notes that landline phone numbers in parts of counties Cork, Kerry, Longford and Tipperary are set to change, Eircom has announced. The number change is being introduced by ComReg to ensure that adequate reserves of telephone numbers exist for customers and services. Eircom said numbers in the 023, 043, 052 and 064 areas will all gain two extra digits. The old numbers and new will operate in parallel for approximately six months beginning on 3 November.

The paper also notes that squabbling over the correct spelling, pronunciation and origins of placenames could come to an end following the launch of a website providing the official Irish names of thousands of towns, streets and villages. People all over the world can now log on to www.logainm.ie to find the official translation of some 100,000 Irish placenames. The service follows years of research and engagement with local communities.

The paper also reports that the European Commission will force mobile operators to further cut the cost of calls and texts when roaming in Europe, but it will be 2011 before it mandates cuts in data roaming charges. Speaking at a conference in Dublin, Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, said that despite the price cap introduced last September, there still wasn't proper competition on roaming charges. "Voice roaming is still a problem -- most operators are offering prices at the ceiling," she said. As a result, she said the Commission would regulate that charges be reduced by EUR0.03 a year.

The Irish Independent reports that Ryanair was stunned on Wednesday to hear a Spanish court backing an online travel agent in a row over the budget airline's policy of only accepting flight bookings from its own website. A Madrid court sided with Spanish online travel site Rumbo, which in August applied for an injunction to prevent Ryanair from going ahead with its plans to cancel flight bookings made through third-party websites. The Madrid court granted Rumbo's application and has banned Ryanair from cancelling tickets booked by passengers through the Spanish site. The ruling also asks Ryanair to remove its 'screenscraper' warning from its website and to refrain from making statements discrediting other websites.

The paper also says that Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Tony Killeen, has launched a new online service, Integrated Forest Information System (IFORIS). Read more on this story on ENN on Tuesday.

The same paper says that Typetec, a managed IT services company, is to provide the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) with laptops for all incoming students for the new academic year, as noted by ENN on Tuesday.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a group of Canadian researchers have said they found evidence suggesting that a Skype joint venture in China is monitoring users' internet text chats and storing messages that contain politically sensitive content on publicly accessible servers. The researchers allege that the monitoring-and-storage programme led to the disclosure of millions of records containing personal information of users of the Chinese service during a security breach. It said the data was stored on eight servers operated by the service, which is a joint venture between Skype, a unit of eBay, and TOM Online, a unit of Hong Kong-based TOM Group.

The Financial Times reports that Microsoft has unveiled the latest in enticement to attract more internet users to its search engine, as it announced an air miles-style promotion in the US. Under the latest plan, known as Search Perks, Microsoft said that US internet users would be able to earn a "ticket" each time they conducted a search on its Live Search site, then redeem these tickets for items such as music downloads, T-shirts, or air miles.

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