Search

Search engines match user queries with webpages. Search efficiency, increases when data-driven network effects attract more users and generate economies of scale and scope in data aggregation. Network effects enhance user welfare but also trigger antitrust concerns because they may "tip" the market towards a single dominant search engine – Google Search. The EU Digital Markets Act imposes an obligation on very large gatekeepers search engines to share their user data with smaller search engines to facilitate market entry and competition. The available empirical literature on search engine efficiency shows that asymmetric data sharing, from larger to smaller search engines, may increase competition but reduce user welfare because it fragments the user data pool that is crucial for efficiency, in particular for rare queries. Tension between competition and user welfare can be overcome by symmetric and mutual data sharing between all search engines, irrespective of market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how Antarctica is changing and how these changes influence the rest of the Earth is fundamental to the future robustness of human society. Strengthening our understanding of these changes and their implications requires dedicated, sustained and coordinated observations of key Antarctic indicators. The Troll Observing Network (TONe), now under development, is Norway’s contribution to the global need for sustained, coordinated, complementary and societally relevant observations from Antarctica. When fully implemented within the coming three years, TONe will be a state-of-the-art, multi-platform, multi-disciplinary observing network in data-sparse Dronning Maud Land. A critical part of the network is a data management system that will ensure broad, free access to all TONe data to the international research community.

Copyright of Yearbook of Antitrust & Regulatory Studies is the property of University of Warsaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The growing awareness of the security issues, safeguarding the leading positions in strategic industries, and upholding competitive advantages has tightened the rules regarding the admission of foreign direct investment (FDI). Recent changes in policy and legislation of the United States and the EU concerning FDI set current trends and determine future perspectives in investment inflows regulation. We are currently facing a global trend towards more selective and detailed regulation of foreign investment, rethinking liberal approaches and open borders policy as the global confrontation of the new eco[1]nomic power centers becomes increasingly tougher.The issue of ensuring FDI inflow into the national economy avoiding risks of undermining leading positions in strategic industries is of a particular academic interest. The implementation of investment screening procedures is becoming one of the important tools of the new national security strategies. Investment screening models in the EU and in the U.S., the key trendsetters in FDI regulation, have a range of differences and similarities analyzed in this article. Therefore, within the framework of the current research we can make an important contribution to the further formation of new global strategies for FDI regulation.

In this discussion paper, we discuss what benefits Finnish citizens and companies can derive from forest data, and how the benefits of that data depend on rights to forests. Environmental protection, everyone’s forest use, bioeconomy, and tourism may benefit from increased access to forest data. Access to forest data is a democratic right by itself. Forest data allow actors to derive more value from their existing forest rights and may spark demands for clarification or reformulation of forest rights. Transparency of forest data also allows voluntary trade in forest ecosystem services. Increased access to forest data may also contribute to forest-related conflicts, given that various, at times contradictory interests are directed at forests. At best, increased access to forest data and information may support the renewal of forest governance to become more democratic, legitimate, and effective.

Copyright of Revista Română de Drept al Afacerilor is the property of Wolters Kluwer Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Large-scale language-image (LLI) models have the potential to open new forms of critical practice through architectural research. Their success enables designers to research within discourses that are profoundly connected to the built environment but did not previously have the resources to engage in spatial research. Although LLI models do not generate coherent building ensembles, they offer an esthetic experience of an AI infused design practice. This paper contextualizes diffusion models architecturally. Through a comparison of approaches to diffusion models in architecture, this paper outlines data-centric methods that allow architects to design critically using computation. The design of text-driven latent spaces extends the histories of typological design to synthetic environments including non-building data into an architectural space. More than synthesizing quantic ratios in various arrangements, the architect contributes by assessing new categorical differences into generated work. The architects' creativity can elevate LLI models with a synthetic architecture, nonexistent in the data sets the models learned from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The May 2022 proposal from the European commission for a 'European health data space' envisages advantages for health from exploiting the growing mass of health data in Europe. However, key stakeholders have identified aspects that demand clarification to ensure success. Data will need to be freed from traditional silos to flow more easily and to cross artificial borders. Wide engagement will be necessary among healthcare professionals, researchers, and the patients and citizens that stand to gain the most but whose trust must be won if they are to allow use or transfer of their data. This paper aims to alert the wider scientific community to the impact the ongoing discussions among lawmakers will have. Based on the literature and the consensus findings of an expert multistakeholder panel organised by the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) in June 2022, it highlights the key issues at the intersection of science and policy, and the potential implications for health research for years, perhaps decades, to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the EncroChat operation, French law enforcement authorities collected over 120 million messages from 60.000 EncroChat users. They cooperated with Dutch law enforcement authorities and Europol in a Joint Investigation Team. In the Netherlands, EncroChat data has already been used in over 200 criminal cases. This article examines what lessons can be learned from the Dutch experience with the EncroChat operation from a human rights perspective, in particular the right to a fair trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus is on the outbreak of covid-19 and the patterns inherent in it as they appear in valid statistics and current research. The approach relies on overall goals and strategies in combating the spread of the virus. The examination is placed within an interdisciplinary frame of reference, particularly social policy and economics. A primary and crucial goal of social policy is to ensure, within prevailing economic frames, equity and social justice in the pursuit of sustainable development. The new coronavirus (COVID-19), which was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China. As of the beginning of October 2020, the number of reported covid-19 cases around the world is about 34 million, and the number of deaths amounts to 860 thousand. The worldwide spread of coronavirus is severely affecting the global economy; millions of the global population are under some form of lockdown. The coronavirus pandemic, experienced as a severe shock, has caused not only economic difficulties but also social suffering and concerns for the infected individuals and their families, relatives and closest acquaintances. Increased concern, in connection with the economic slowdown, have given rise to new policies to combat the spread of the new coronavirus never before seen in humans. The policy actions range from social distancing that allow people to work online at home to the closing of borders. In the new emergency conditions, the values and goal orientations emphasize life and health as fundamental human rights. In addition to increased care provisions, other policy actions, such as relief package designed to ensure economic activities and the welfare and well-being of individuals and families, telemedicine, remote work and smart devices are used to enable visiting other people in order to return to normal. Although science guided by humanistic principles, has provided the knowledge to portray the state of the world and human conditions, the preparedness for combating the coronavirus pandemic and the treatment of people infected with the virus, have been found to vary among nations. Significant access barriers remain, especially in remote areas, including the cost of data as well as lack of understanding of foreign languages to manipulate devices and understand internet content. International responsibility and solidarity appear as primary guiding principles in connecting all policy actions to combat coronavirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) stands out in the French academic landscape because of the attention it pays to making its research data accessible to the wider scientific community. Since the 1980s, the “surveys unit” assists researchers in archiving their surveys. In this interview for the Tracés journal, Gwennaëlle Brilhault, head of the surveys unit, Amandine Morisset, in charge of documenting surveys, Cris Beauchemin and Patrick Simon, INED researchers, highlight the tedious work that giving access to research data implies and the complexity of the questions it raises. Throughout the discussion, they explore the concrete challenges it brings up, both cost-wise and time-wise; the lack of recognition it often entails; the issues of intellectual property it creates and the fuzziness that surrounds the notion of “sensitive data”. By enumerating the various operations necessary to opening up and documenting survey data, the interview demonstrates that “data” can by no means be “raw” and must be equipped with a wealth of information to be reusable.

Open banking - promoted in the European Union by the access to account rule contained in the Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2) - is supposed to enhance consumer's welfare and to foster competition. However, many observers are fearful about the negative effects of the entry into the market of the so-called BigTech giants. Unless incumbent banks are able to rise above the technological challenges, the risk is that, in the long run, BigTech firms could dominate the market, by virtue of their great ability to collect data on consumer preferences, and to process them with sophisticated tools, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques; not to mention the possible benefits arising from the cross-subsidisation. This paper aims at analysing the controversial relationship between open banking and competition. In this framework, many aspects must be clarified, such as the definition of the relevant markets; the identification of the dominant entities; the relationship with the essential facility doctrine. The specific competition problems encountered in the financial sector need to be inscribed in the context of the more general debate around access to data in the digital sphere. The evolving scenario poses a serious challenge to regulators, calling them to strike the right balance between fostering innovation and preserving financial stability. The appraisal intends not only to cover EU law and policy, but also to make a comparison with other legal systems. In this respect, something noteworthy is taking place in the United States where, as of today, consumers' access to financial data sharing has been largely dependent on private-sector efforts. Indeed, Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (passed in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008) provides that, subject to rules prescribed by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB), a consumer financial services provider must make available to a consumer information, in its control or possession, concerning the consumer financial product or service that the consumer obtained from the provider. This provision, which dates back to 2010, has never been implemented. However, on 22 October 2020, the CFBP has announced its intention to regulate open banking, issuing an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking. In light of their investigation, the authors advocate the adaptation of the current strategies to the modified conditions and, in some instances, the creation of novel mechanisms, more suitable to face unprecedented threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the competition case law and the approach of utility regulation to address excessive prices. It considers the potential challenges of applying a reasonable prices framework to access to digital platforms' data, due to the difficulties in assessing an appropriate return on digital platforms' investments in R&D. Following this conclusion, the article proposes to assess whether lighter forms of intervention may be sufficient to address the market failures identified and to introduce access to data if these are not likely to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the information society, it is much easier for someone to find relevant data if s/he has an information need because of the availability of databases and electronic information tools. In information science this topic is usually treated under the topic information behaviour. In lexicography the term access process is used (Bergenholtz and Gouws 2010). It can be shown that this process beginning with the "origin of the problem" leading to an "information source usage situation" contains different parts, and that each part contains different phases, with the pre-consultation phase and the intra-consultant phase containing different steps. The most important concepts here are the access route and the access time. In this paper some experiments in two case studies are described to show how different access processes in different user situations take place.

As a follow up to the Digital Rights judgment of 8 April 2014 in which the Grand Chamber invalidated the data retention directive, the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm and the Court of Appeal in London both referred questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. On 21 December 2016, the Grand Chamber rendered a landmark judgment in which it interpreted Article 15(1) of e-privacy directive 2002/58/EC dated 12 July 2002 in light of Article 7 on the right to privacy, Article 8 on the protection of personal data, Article 11 on freedom of expression and Article 52(1) on the principle of proportionality of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Grand Chamber ruled that EU law does not allow a general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data. It also ruled that access of competent national authorities to retained data must be restricted solely to fighting serious crime and subject to prior review by a court or an independent administrative authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementations of Big Data analysis are reshaping society. The novel ways mathematics operate in society warrants new efforts for mathematics education, both in teaching the new technology and in providing an ethical and critical awareness of its implications. This interview study investigates pre-service teachers' ethical reasoning in data science contexts, focusing on aspects of access to the data that underpin the technology. Findings show that pre-service teachers offer a wide array of ethical arguments related to access to data, that informs their effort to think critically on oppressive situations. However, there is also an indication that their reasoning can be limited by lacking understanding of the related data science methodology, implying that mathematics teacher education should encompass more of this. • Big Data Analytics has ramifications for vulnerable groups in society. • Big Data Analytics has implications for social justice oriented teaching. • Teachers' ethical reasoning can be limited if lacking Big Data Analytics knowledge. • Data access is an important aspect when relating ethics with Big Data applications. • Critical mathematical consciousness is related to seeing plurality of perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Berlin Declaration' was published in 2003 as a guideline to policy makers to promote the Internet as a functional instrument for a global scientific knowledge base. Because knowledge is derived from data, the principles of the 'Berlin Declaration' should apply to data as well. Today, access to scientific data is hampered by structural deficits in the publication process. Data publication needs to offer authors an incentive to publish data through long-term repositories. Data publication also requires an adequate licence model that protects the intellectual property rights of the author while allowing further use of the data by the scientific community.

Copyright of Lexikos is the property of Bureau of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To understand the causes of disease and improve diagnosis and treatment regimes, biomedical researchers need access to large numbers of well-characterized data and samples. Over the past decade, biobanks have been established across Europe to collect and manage access to data and samples. The challenge that we face is how to develop the tools and collaborations to enable researchers to access samples and data from a network of biobanks, rather than applying to individual biobanks. One of the perceived stumbling blocks to achieving this is represented by the different legal requirements in each country. The aim of the BioSHaRE-European Union (EU) project is to address these challenges by developing tools and methods for researchers to access and use pooled data from different cohort and biobank studies. The purpose of this article is to identify and compare the key legal requirements regarding research use of data across biobanks based in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Our investigation starts with the analysis of the key differences for the use of data between these countries. As a result, we identified three key areas where legal requirements differ across the five BioSHaRE-EU jurisdictions, namely, in the definition of personal data, the requirements regarding pseudonymization and processing for medical research purposes. This article provides an overview of these differences and describes them in the light of the proposed EU regulation on data protection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Birth cohort studies are important tools for life-course epidemiology, given the spectrum of the environmental, behavioural, and genetic factors that should be considered when making judgements on human health. Biobanks are valuable components of studies designed to investigate the genetic variability of diseases and improve phenotypic characterisation. In studies involving vulnerable populations and biobanks, it is essential to provide ethical reasoning and analyse the legal requirements. We describe the processes and the tools used in the iterative design of an appropriate informed consent model and the ethico-legal framework of the Piccolipiù study. The Piccolipiù study is a prospective population-based study funded by the Italian Ministry of Health that intends to enrol 3,000 newborns and their mothers in five Italian cities, and to store biological samples for future use. To realise these objectives, we performed a thorough evaluation of the literature, of national and international guidelines, and of the impact of the Italian legal requirements for research biobanking. Discussions among stakeholders facilitated the design of the informed consent and the ethico-legal framework. Several topics are addressed, including the suitability of a broad informed consent for paediatric biobanks, infant vulnerability, access to and sharing of data, and the disclosure of individual's genetic results. Discussion of the ethical and legal procedures adopted in epidemiological biobanking might be a fruitful ground for comparison both at the national level, where standardization and homogeneity are lacking, and at the international level, where different regulatory issues are often in the background and might hamper research biobanks networking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Evidence for Action (E4A) program assumes that both resource allocation and quality of care can improve via a strategy that combines evidence and advocacy to stimulate accountability. The present paper explains the methods used to collect baseline monitoring data using two tools developed to inform program design in six focus countries. The first tool is designed to understand the extent to which decision-makers have access to the data they need, when they need it, and in meaningful formats, and then to use the data to prioritize, plan, and allocate resources. The second tool seeks the views of people working in the area of maternal and newborn health (MNH) about political will, including: quality of care, the political and financial priority accorded to MNH, and the extent to which MNH decision-makers are accountable to service users. Findings indicate significant potential to improve access to and use of data for decision-making, particularly at subnational levels. Respondents across all six program countries reported lack of access by ordinary citizens to information on the health and MNH budget, and data on MNH outcomes. In all six countries there was a perceived inequity in the distribution of resources and a perception that politicians do not fully understand the priorities of their constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La Directiva 2006/24/CE, sobre la conservació de dades del trànsit en les comunicacions electròniques, comporta un canvi profund dels principis bàsics de la protecció de dades personals. Els proveïdors de serveis de comunicacions electròniques han de conservar les dades que permetin identificar l'origen, la destinació, la data, l'hora i la durada d'una comunicació electrònica, el tipus de comunicació que s'ha fet, l'equip utilitzat i la localització de l'equip esmentat.Amb això es vol garantir que les dades estiguin disponibles amb finalitats d'investigació, detecció i enjudiciament de delictes greus. Es concedeixen als estats àmplies facultats de control que han estat molt criticades per les instàncies que vetllen per una protecció adequada de les dades personals, atès que comporten contravenir els principis establerts fins ara. A més, la redacció de la Directiva conté una sèrie d'imprecisions que la fan encara més criticable: indeterminació dels delictes que permetran usar les dades, insuficiència de les mesures de seguretat establertes, indefinició del procediment per a tenir accés a les dades i, finalment, silenci respecte de qui suportarà els costos que comporten les mesures que s'adoptaran.Ens trobem davant d'un instrument que, en nom de la seguretat, sacrifica la privacitat dels ciutadans sense que d'entrada hi hagi cap indici que permeti sospitar res.

By adopting a reflective–reflexive approach, the paper explores aspects of positionality in relation to gender and culture and examines in what way they affect the generation of status and power within the relationships and social interactions of the research participants. By drawing on my personal experience as a female researcher operating in a male-dominated, foreign and yet familiar setting, I will analyse the mechanisms involved in the negotiation of the positions occupied by the various players and how this determined my status in terms of insider/outsidership. Particular attention will be paid to the facilitation of access to the field and the construction of knowledge. The data informing this paper were collected as part of a study of school-based models of initial teacher training in Germany, including contributions from the directors, tutors and mentors of three teacher training Seminars as well as my own observations. The relatively small sample of respondents and the researcher's subjective perspective of reporting and interpreting the findings preclude any conclusions of a general nature to be drawn. However, interesting data emerged, suggesting that aspects of gender and culture as well as the researcher's biographical background constitute powerful factors in the positioning of the research participants, which have methodological and epistemological implications. In the light of these findings I would argue that by adopting a reflective–reflexive approach the quality of the research account can be enhanced by making the mechanisms involved in the negotiation of positions of power and control more transparent. Finally, the analysis presented is intended to act as a caveat against the simplistic assumption that a researcher's familiarity and biographical affiliation with the setting will assist him/her in establishing and maintaining control over the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations such as universities collect and use personal data about customers such as students. How do students feel about their university's practices related to error in data and access to personal data? Using data collected via a survey of 187 students at a large U.S. university, we investigate the effects of these two privacy and security concerns on students' feeling of alienation. Implications of the results are discussed in light of ethics, strategy, design, control and administration of personal information management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data protection laws and their implementation have led to serious restrictions on access to personal data for research purposes. This seriously affects the development of social medicine and public health by making effective prevention of illness, and rational planning of health services, and their evaluation impossible in many instances. The conflict between people's need for knowledge about prevention and cure of illness and the control over personal data must be solved. Therefore, it is necessary to change the laws and ensure access to data for research use in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the European Science Foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]