News and Research articles on Google+

Going global: Comparing Chinese mobile applications’ data and user privacy governance at home and abroad

Lianrui Jia, University of Toronto
Lotus Ruan, University of Toronto
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1502

This paper examines data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions - including the role of the state. It also highlights the role of platforms in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards.

Transnational collective actions for cross-border data protection violations

Federica Casarosa, European University Institute
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1498

Although the GDPR paves the way for a coordinated EU-wide legal action against data protection infringements, only a reform of private international law rules can enhance the opportunities of data subjects to enforce their rights.

Anchoring the need to revise cross-border access to e-evidence

Sergi Vazquez Maymir, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1495

The percentages and figures used in the impact assessment accompanying the European Commission’s e-evidence package strongly influence the analysis of the problem and limit the assessment of the problem of cross-border access to e-evidence to technical and efficiency considerations.

Geopolitics, jurisdiction and surveillance

Monique Mann, Deakin University
Angela Daly, University of Strathclyde
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1501

The internet is a forum for geopolitical struggle as states wield power beyond their terrestrial territorial borders through the extraterritorial geographies of data flows. This exertion of power across multiple jurisdictions, and via the infrastructure of transnational technology companies, creates new challenges for traditional forms of regulatory governance and the protection of human rights.

Going global: Comparing Chinese mobile applications’ data and user privacy governance at home and abroad

Lianrui Jia, University of Toronto
Lotus Ruan, University of Toronto
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1502

This paper examines data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions - including the role of the state. It also highlights the role of platforms in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards.

Back up: can users sue platforms to reinstate deleted content?

Matthias C. Kettemann, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
Anna Sophia Tiedeke, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
PUBLISHED ON: 4 Jun 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.2.1484

Can platforms delete whatever content they want? Not everywhere, say the authors of this paper, which shows why certain social networks ‘must carry’ some content – and how users in some jurisdictions can force the companies to allow them into their communicative space.

Platform transience: changes in Facebook’s policies, procedures, and affordances in global electoral politics

Bridget Barrett, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1446

This paper shows how platforms are transient in the policies, procedures, and affordances and details the implications for politics.

Voter preferences, voter manipulation, voter analytics: policy options for less surveillance and more autonomy

Jacquelyn Burkell, The University of Western Ontario
Priscilla M. Regan, George Mason University
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1438

Personalised political messaging undermines voter autonomy and the electoral process. Use of voter analytics for political communication must be regulated.

The regulation of online political micro-targeting in Europe

Tom Dobber, University of Amsterdam
Ronan Ó Fathaigh, University of Amsterdam
Frederik J. Zuiderveen Borgesius, Radboud University
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1440

This paper discusses how online political micro-targeting is regulated in Europe, from the perspective of data protection law, freedom of expression, and political advertising rules.

Disinformation optimised: gaming search engine algorithms to amplify junk news

Samantha Bradshaw, Oxford Internet Institute
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1442

This paper examines how Google Search ranked 29 junk news domains between 2016 and 2019, finding that SEO — rather than paid advertising — is the most important strategy for generating discoverability via Google Search. Google has taken several steps to combat the spread of disinformation on Search, and these strategies have been largely successful at limiting the discoverability of junk news.

Platform ad archives: promises and pitfalls

Paddy Leerssen, University of Amsterdam
Jef Ausloos, University of Amsterdam
Brahim Zarouali, University of Amsterdam
Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam
Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 9 Oct 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1421

Ad archives are a novel tool in online advertising governance. They promise significant benefits, but only if their operators address key criticisms.

Reframing platform power

José van Dijck, Utrecht University
David Nieborg, University of Toronto
Thomas Poell, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Jun 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.2.1414

This paper is part of Transnational materialities, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by José van Dijck and Bernhard Rieder. Introduction In March 2019, the European Commission fined Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. 1.5 billion euro for antitrust violations in the online advertising market—the third fine in three years. In July 2018, European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had levied a record fine of 4.3 billion euro on Google for breaching European competition rules by forcing cell phone manufacturers to pre-install a dozen of the firms’ apps when using Android—Google’s mobile operating system. And in 2016, the company was punished for unlawfully favouring Google …