Sunday, November 7, 2010

Privacy Policy Generator for Google Adsense Publishers

As Google have changed the Terms and Conditions of their Adsense program, one of the requirements now is that all Adsense publishers should have a "Privacy Policy" on their websites. Below is the exact wording that has been added to the Terms and Conditions for Adsense publishers ....

"You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your user’s browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management."


Update: 23 March 2009
We have now updated the Google Adsense Privacy Policy Generator to include a mention about the DoubleClick DART cookie, which is now required by Google to be included in your privacy policy. You can read more about the DoubleClick DART Cookie on the following link ... https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557&sourceid=aso

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Government plan is crux of health care debate

Washington - — On the eve of President Obama's key health care address to a joint session of Congress, top House Democrats appeared divided Tuesday over a controversial government-run insurance option, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisting it be part of the House plan.





The public option, a crucible for liberal Democrats and anathema to Republicans and many conservative Democrats, has opened a chasm in the Democratic Party that threatens to sink the health reform effort. Obama's chief task in his nationally televised speech at 5 p.m. PDT tonight will be to bridge the gap.

Energy Dept. unveils credible Open Government Plan

In an effort to boost transparency and faith in the federal government, all of the Obama administration’s departments and agencies have released “Open Government Plans” detailing how they will better communicate with the public. The U.S. Department of Energy in particular had some interesting tidbits to share.

 You can view a full copy of the plan here (PDF).

First and foremost, the department called attention to its Open Energy Information portal, located at OpenEI.org, to provide the resources people need to understand where energy is coming from and how much is being used. Much of the agency’s data will be indexed on this site, accessible to anyone. Built as a wiki, the site will accept edits and contributions from outside the department as well.

The same web site will host a catalog of best practices in alternative energy, energy efficiency, and other green initiatives, making them available for governments in other countries to freely borrow.

In addition to OpenEI.org, the Department of Energy is launching ScienceEducation.gov, a platform that will connect government agencies to help better educate the public about practical issues in science and math. This will go hand-in-hand with the Energy Information Administration’s Education and Literacy Initiative, helping regular consumers understand energy delivery and policy.

Many of the administration’s departments were not as specific in their Open Government Plans, stating only that they would introduce web-based resources and increase transparency in the future. This wouldn’t have cut it for the DOE, which is already facing a lot of scrutiny over how it’s distributing stimulus funds to green technology companies and utilities.

Despite congressional concerns that the stimulus funds are not being managed above board, the DOE seems to be keeping close watch on the recipients of that money. Cylindrical solar module maker Solyndra, one of the early winners of a DOE loan guarantee, totaling $535 million, recently got busted by government-hired auditors for racking up too much debt and losing too much money to make it to an IPO.

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu has also beefed up the department’s Energy Star program after evaluating its inefficiencies. The program has now stripped the Energy Star label off of refrigerators made by LG Electronics, and hasn’t balked at opposition. It seems to have consumers’ best interests at heart.

DOE transparency may also be vital to quell concerns over Smart Grid deployments across the country. The agency doled out $3.4 billion to utilities to help them build a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid. But there’s been a strong backlash. In Bakersfield, Calif., residents have filed a class action lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric and its supply chain — including Silver Spring Networks — accusing the utility of hiking its energy rates after installing smart meters. Opposition has been cropping up elsewhere, too, on the eve of mass smart meter roll outs.

If the Department of Energy wants to see the grid speedily revamped, it will need to launch massive consumer education campaigns touting the merits of the Smart Grid. But launching the interactive OpenEI.org seems like a solid start. As a last kicker on the side of transparency, the release announcing the Open Government Plan, also linked to Secretary Chu’s Facebook page.

Obama to travel to gulf to plan government's next steps

Outlining the government's next steps, the White House has said that President Obama will travel to the gulf plus address the nation this week about the BP 
The president, who has been under criticism allegedly for being slow to respond to the crisis, will be in the region on Monday and Tuesday and will talk to the country on Tuesday.
Axelrod also said, "He wants to lay out the steps we're going to take from here to get through the crisis."
The president's address is scheduled to come on the evening of a meeting with BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and CEO Tony Hayward to figuratively hold their feet to the fire.
Axelrod further said, "Our mission here is to hold them accountable in every appropriate way, and that is what we're going to do. I'm not, I don't consider them a partner. I don't consider them, they're not social friends, they are not, I'm not looking to make judgments about their soul. I just want to make sure that they do what they're required to do."
Obama would call on BP to create a funded escrow account designated for damage claims arising from the worsening oil spill, the adviser further added. (With Inputs from Agencies)

EPA, DHS Seek Citizen Participation with Open Government Plan


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published the first edition of its Open Government Plan. The plan discusses publishing EPA information online, improving the quality of the information, and creating a culture of open government. This is in response to President Obama’s Open Government Directive, which outlines a plan for breaking down the barriers between the federal government and the public.

Today, federal departments and agencies are putting forward concrete plans for making operations and data more transparent, and expanding opportunities for citizen participation, collaboration, and oversight. These steps will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness across the government.

“EPA is very focused on ensuring public access and participation in our activities,” said Linda Travers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Environmental Information. ”With our new plan, we’re not only meeting the objectives of the directive, but we’re also building on our culture of promoting openness.”

EPA’s flagship initiative, Community Engagement, is an over-arching theme that focuses on outreach to disadvantaged communities, expanding public awareness of the rulemaking process, and improving access to environmental information through the development of mobile applications. The agency is focused on working with communities in innovative ways, with the goal of sharing best practices and lessons learned for future efforts.

To address public comments and suggestions, EPA will continue the conversation in a series of blog posts for discussion on the plan and with a video town hall meeting in early summer 2010. EPA plans to review its Open Government Plan every six months as suggestions come in from the public.

Trichet - ECB to propose government monitoring plan

Trichet - ECB to propose government monitoring plan
Trichet has regularly urged Europe to improve the way it monitors governments' spending in the wake of the debt crisis. Asked at the bank's monthly news conference what needed to be done, he said the ECB was drawing up its own proposals.
"We will be more explicit on all that when we transmit our own proposal, but it would mean improving massively the ex-ante (prior) monitoring of the position of the various governments," he said.
"In the fiscal area of course we are very strongly in favour of the European semester. I trust now that practically all countries, even those who are resisting, are now on board. We need more sanctions. We need much more effective monitoring."
European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn has proposed splitting the year up so national budgets can be vetted by Brussels before being finalised by national parliaments.
Trichet said as much as possible would be done to exploit the scope of existing laws to push through stricter rules.
"I would say in the first step, it would be to exploit all the possibility that the secondary legislation of Europe permits in all domains... We consider that we have to go up to all what the legal framework permits."

Sly Bailey attacks government plan to reform local media ownership rules

Sly Bailey attacks government plan to reform local media ownership rules
The Trinity Mirror chief executive, Sly Bailey, has hit out at the coalition government's plan to deregulate cross-media ownership rules.

Trinity Mirror was a member of the consortium lined up to run the pilot to to provide TV news for the north-east and Border region, under Labour's plan to provide a series of replacements for ITV's service in different areas of the country.

Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, confirmed in his first media policy speech yesterday that Labour's plan for independently financed news consortiums would be scrapped.

The government has instead asked the head of investment banking at Lazards, Nick Shott, to conduct an "independent commercial assessment" of local TV, while Ofcom is to look at scrapping local cross-media ownership rules.

In opposition the Conservatives championed a plan to launch up to 81 local media companies that would deliver TV, print and online services to regional and local communities.

Bailey said that while the government's decision to scrap Labour's solution "did not come as a surprise", she believed there was merit in the IFNC concept.

"We believed that the IFNCs' capacity to tap the talent and expertise of regional media companies to provide a viable alternative to the BBC's local news made sense for everyone," she added. "It is worth noting at this point that we don't see 'City TV' as a viable proposition. Our research suggests that the costs are too high and the revenues too low to support a sustainable business model."