Google's global privacy lawyer has admitted that parts of the outfit's privacy policy are too vague and need to be tightened up.

In an interview with the Beeb, Peter Fleischer said the company "could do better" with policy statements that explained why user information was sometimes shared with third parties.

He said that maintaining user privacy was pretty fundamental to Google. The only time the outfit would share data was when personal information had been stripped from it. Honest.

Wired News, with help from some readers, attempted to get real answers from the largest United States-based ISPs about what information they gather on their customers' use of the internet, and how long they retain records like IP addresses, e-mail and real-time browsing activity. Most importantly, we asked what they require from law-enforcement agencies before coughing up the data, and whether they sell your data to marketers.

Only four of the eight largest ISPs responded to the 10-question survey, despite being contacted repeatedly over the course of two months. Some ISPs wouldn't talk to us, but gave answers to customers responding to a call for reader help on Wired's Threat Level blog.

AOL, AT&T, Cox and Qwest all responded to the survey, with a mix of timeliness and transparency.

But only Cox answered the question, "How long do you retain records of the IP addresses assigned to customers."

Some of the most sensitive information sent across an ISP's network are the URLs of the websites that people visit. This so-called clickstream data includes every URL a customer visits, including URLs from search engines, which generally include the search term.

When asked if they allow marketers to see anonymized or partially-anonymized clickstream data, AOL, AT&T and Cox said they did not, while Qwest gave a muddled answer and declined to answer a follow-up question. Comcast, EarthLink, Verizon and Time Warner didn't respond.

Half of all black British males are destined to become records on the police National DNA Database by 2010, according to an analysis of government figures by the Liberal Democrats.

If you count only men of an arrestable age, 68 per cent of them will have been nabbed and dabbed by the police by 2010. Just 14.4 per cent of white males are expected to be on the DNA database in the same time.

Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell used the figures to raise a question about the "disproportionate" targeting of non-white people by police, or "racial profiling", by which people's behaviours are stereotyped according to the colour of their skin.

The extent of errors on the DNA database, and the number of children contained on it, are also problems that are putting the National Police Improvement Agency, the authority responsible for its upkeep, on the defensive.

The US appears to have rejected draft proposals by Germany for G8 members to agree tough measures in greenhouse gas emissions, leaked documents have shown.

"The US still has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement," a red-inked note reads.

"The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses 'multiple red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to," it continues.

"We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position."

Greenpeace Director John Sauven described the US position as "criminal".

"The US administration is clearly ignoring the global scientific consensus as well the groundswell of concern about climate change in the United States," he said.

The US has not signed the Kyoto Protocol, which sets out targets for lowering emissions until 2012.

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
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#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
#7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA's Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
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#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

Google has been told that it may be breaking European privacy laws by keeping people's search information on its servers for up to two years.

Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said the firm was committed to dialogue with the group.

"We believe it's an important part of our commitment to respect user privacy while balancing a number of important factors, such as maintaining security and preventing fraud and abuse," Mr Fleischer said.

Earlier this year Google said it would anonymise personal data it receives from users' web search after 18 to 24 months.

Google collects and stores data from each query. It holds information such as the search term itself, the unique address of the PC being used, known as the IP address, and details of how a user makes searches, such as the browser used and previous queries to Google.

Google has said it was using this information to help improve its different services and to monitor how its search engine was functioning.

Father of two Siegfried B went awol shortly after his 50th birthday back in May 1985. He told his wife he was going out and duly exited his house in Bergholz-Rehbrücke, south of Berlin, never to return. Police subsequently searched the premises, including the garage, but didn't check a large dovecot above.

His wife recently decided to renovate the garage roof, and workers got a nasty shock when they set to work. Prosecutor Wilfried Lehmann explained: "When they removed the layers of asbestos they discovered the mummified skeleton. Siegfried B was hidden in the roof, and next to him were a schnaps bottle and a suicide note."

As an added twist to this macabre tale, there was speculation that the East German secret police might have had a hand in his death. Neighbours "reported seeing a dark limousine draw up outside the house several times, and the men inside it pulling Siegfried B into the car and driving off".

"I don't think it has been easy, but nevertheless [the AACS] is being broken... due to software implementations, although there have been hacks done on HD DVD drive firmware as well," said Alec Main, chief technology officer of Cloakware, based in Vienna, Va. "Clearly these software implementations need to take better precautions against being hacked."

Goodman said he considers that a reason to declare the technology defunct, and that DRM is a waste of time. He added that making DRM more secure would mean a trade-off in usability, and customers would be less likely to buy products that are harder to use.

At its core, DRM is not just about security, Goodman added. "It's about trying to force a business model into the marketplace," he said.

"The software developers need to use more advanced techniques such as white-box cryptography, where the keys do not appear in memory," Main said. "This technique can still be hacked ... but these techniques require much more knowledgeable hackers, or more likely a team of hackers, with a strong background in computer science, hacking, mathematics and cryptography."

We've been covering the ongoing dispute between the US and Antigua over online gambling for more than seven years, and to be honest, Antigua has been quite patient with the games that the US is playing.

In 2004, the WTO agreed and ruled that the US had no right to try to control Antigua-based online casinos. The US promptly ignored the WTO ruling.

A few months later, the WTO did the equivalent of stomping its feet and demanding that the US change its rules, and the US promptly ignored them. Earlier this year, the WTO again sided with Antigua, but since there's been no consequences from ignoring WTO rulings on the matter, the US pretty much shrugged. When pressed, US officials claimed that the US was going to get around the fact that they were breaking treaty obligations by... changing the treaty.

Other countries are lining up to support Antigua, but it doesn't seem likely that it's going to change US policy much. We're still waiting to see if Antigua will follow the suggestions that have gone around to set up free music download sites in Antigua as retaliation, since asking the US to fix things isn't getting it very far.

Viagra could be used to help people flying eastwards recover from jetlag, according to new research.

A team of Argentine scientists found the drug helped hamsters recover up to 50% faster from forward shifts in their daily time cycles.

Injection of Viagra before the time shift meant the hamsters adjusted to the new time cycle faster, even when low doses of the drug, which did not cause penile erections, were used.