Privacy policies + more news

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Google privacy policies

Official Google Blog: Updating our privacy policies and terms of service – a confluence of events are affecting Google’s privacy policies. The fact that Google has over 70 different privacy policies implies a whole range of issues with version control and updating. Secondly there is the regulatory pressure to simplify privacy policies so that consumers can understand them if they read them. The consolidation of privacy policies also foreshadows a consolidation of services as well.

Economics

How China’s Boom Caused the Financial Crisis – By Heleen Mees | Foreign Policy – title is misleading as it was a factor, but needs more nuance. Low interest rates and the decline of middle class income led to a need for refinancing. Blaming China is simplistic – it was China, not the U.S. economy, that prospered on Americans’ spending binge. The world’s most populous country grew at double-digit rates for much of the 2000s. And while the U.S. savings rate hovered around 15 percent of GDP, China’s savings rate increased from 38 percent in 2000 to 54 percent in 2006. China’s savings are heavily skewed toward risk-free assets, perhaps because the Chinese are culturally more risk-averse, but also because the country’s financial markets are still underdeveloped and not fully liberalized. The large buildup of savings in China and other emerging economies (mostly oil exporters) depressed interest rates worldwide from 2004 on, as too much money was chasing U.S. Treasury bonds and other supposedly risk-free securities, driving up the price of bonds and driving down interest rates. Thus, by the time the Fed started to worry about rising inflation by mid-2004, leading the Fed to try to put the brakes on the economy, it was already too late

Finance

Saudi equities: a lifting of the veil? | FT.com – opens up market to direct institutional investment

Innovation

Fujitsu mobile phones boost diabetic support services ‹ Japan Today

Japan

Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea ‹ Japan Today – lacks conviction so isn’t taking the risks that Korea will

Korea

Unpacking the Fourth Quarter Numbers at Samsung Electronics – WSJ – issues with profit margins abound

Luxury

Louis Vuitton Sets A New Standard In Federal Trademark And Copyright Law : Fashion Apparel Law Blog

Media

Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship | TorrentFreak

Online

I, Cringely » Absence makes the heart grow fonder and other weird thoughts – on SOPA protests

Why the feds smashed Megaupload – interesting timing around SOPA | PIPA protests and the MegaUpload versus Universal Music dispute over the MegaUpload advert

Retailing

London department stores become the ‘Great Mall of China’|WantChinaTimes.com – each Chinese shopper on average spent 2,520 pounds (US$4,000) in Harrods

Technology

ARM’s stiff upper lip trembles at Chipzilla’s Medfield | ExtremeTech