Neelie Kroes, former Digital Agenda Commissioner, has stated that the EU should focus more on making the right to be forgotten clear.

"Kroes has argued its statement with the fact that the European Court of Justice ruling on the “right to be forgotten” is not enough. Ecommerce Europe agrees that clarifications are needed, but stresses that the approach on it should remain flexible, so as not pose too heavy administrative burdens for web shops, and especially SMEs."

"A flexible approach was also agreed upon by the 28 European Justice Ministers in their last meeting. The Ministers declared that search engines are only obliged to remove links with personal information about people under certain conditions. What those conditions are exactly will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis."

"When the right to be forgotten is decided upon a case-by-case basis, judges will be able to take into account the other obligations web shops already have. On the other hand, if policy makers would adopt a rigid approach towards the right to be forgotten, this would mean that any removal request coming from an individual should always be granted. That would happen without taking into account the particularities of the case."

More info here.

Source Louisem.com

Networking

Immigration tends to be an inward focusing issue for many people. The content and emotive issued raised by immigration are based on what immigration is doing to “your” country.

So its a great chance to see how other countries are thinking about immigration through the Guardian newspaper who have published in October 2014.

This networking provides good insight to the cross cultural issues faced by all citizens in the EU.

Ten myths about migration

Writers from the Guardian, Le Monde, El País, Süddeutsche Zeitung and La Stampa address some common claims about migration and assess whether they are true in their country

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/21/ten-myths-migration-europe

The rise of many national political parties across the EU has been focused on their views that immigration is a drain on the resources of the country where immigrants are settling.

However recent research be the University College London's Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration which was published in the Guardian this week suggests a rather different scenario to the one that is commonly accepted. In fact they believe that immigration has contributed £4.96 billion to the UK economy since 2011.

However, not all people are convinced and the people at Migrant Watch who campaign to reduce immigration believe that the use of the data has been “selective”.

So perhaps the real truth is that no matter which side is making the argument “selective” data can and is used to substantiate the various claims – phew where does leave the average person in the street when it comes to making decisions based on the words of politicians, newspapers and the media? I think I may just stay sitting on the fence!

For more information follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29910497

Disruptive innovation focused on enhanced customer experience in order to adapt to shifting consumer preferences will drive retail brands revenues in 2015.

"E-commerce, m-commerce and in-store commerce will evolve closer into simply commerce."

"The battle between brick-and-mortar stores and digital channels such as online and mobile will be more reduced in intensity, and instead, each and every channelwill be designed to direct the customer down the most likely path to conversion."

"Access to APIs will pave the way to more personalised consumer experiences so that merchants can pursue open APIs to develop more predictive apps that allow sharing of information and leveraging new functionality in real time to better personalise the user experience."

"Mobile device makers will redesign hardware and software strategies to specifically cater to mobile commerce. In response to consumer demand for streamlined commerce, device makers will make strategic decisions based on improving geo-tagging, integrating payment technology, user authentication, messaging and inter-app communication."

More info here.