Privacy gurus have collaborated to influence policy in the Obama administration and set new best practices for the industry.

The recently formed Future of Privacy Forum aims to present a privacy agenda to the Obama team very shortly. It also plans to talk to internet users about their concerns.

“We’re at an important crossroads for improving consumer control over online data,” said Forum co-chairman Jules Polonetsky.

Businesses are going green to beat the economic blues, say the sustainable business experts

New research suggests that environmental measures could be the answer to combating the economic downturn: the research shows that waste prevention, using less raw material and energy recovery will all be crucial to saving British companies money in the face of the recession.

Over 85% of companies questioned by sustainable business experts, Envirowise, on environmental measures to cut costs, chose the actions mentioned as a way of making their businesses more profitable. The resulst follow a recent warning by the Chamber of Commerce on firms facing “a difficult and risky climate” in the next six to nine months with recession looming.

Envirowise claimed the research shows increased recognition that minimizing waste and being more resource efficient have become business critical in the current climate if companies are going to drive down costs and keep up their green credentials.

Proof that work doesn’t always have to be such a chore: Lucy Rodgers is launching a series looking at dream careers for kids, and unwraps the hidden secrets of the professional chocolate taster!
As far as fantasy careers go, chocolate tasting must come close to top on most people’s list!

However, sampling and buying the best confectionery in the world for the famous luxury London department store, Fortnum and Mason, is probably beyond most chocoholics’ craziest dreams!

Well, this is what Darren Williams does for a living! The 43-year-old confectionery buyer spends his working days researching, sampling and negotiating deals on high end chocolate and sweets from around the world. “I get to eat and taste an awful lot of chocolates and sweets,” he smiles. “I taste daily. “I also travel around and search for new products and then I get to try them!” Darren is always on the hunt for the “best in its class”, which can be anything from the perfect Cadbury’s sample to unusual and top end single-estate foreign produce.

LONDON - The West End Marketing Alliance, which represents the stores in London’s famous West End, has just launched a prize draw campaign as part of an attraction strategy to drive Christmas shoppers to the area. The initiative has come As a result of new competition from the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush.
The draw, which is being marketed in the London Paper, offers consumers the chance to win £5k worth of Selfridges shopping vouchers, theater tickets, a stay at the deluxe Langham Hotel and a selection of VIP offers.

On the sixth of December Sinterklaas or Saint-Nicholas is celebrated, which is an entirely different holiday from Christmas. Santa Claus in Belgium is called de Kerstman or le Père Noël and he does come around on Christmas day to bring children presents. There are different cultures in Belgium, the Northern part being Vlaanderen (speaking a Dutch dialect), the Southern part being Wallonie (speaking a French dialect) and the Eastern part speaking German.

Small family presents are given at Christmas too, under the tree, or in stockings near the fire-place, to be found in the morning.

Source : http://www.soon.org.uk

Set to be one of the fiercest battles the mobile tech industry has seen, the new BlackBerry has gone head to head with rival brands Nokia and Apple, with its new Bold model.

RIM, who produce BlackBerry have also brought out a new touch screen phone , declaring all out war on both Nokia and Apple.

The new phones are on general sale in the UK, and are expected to make a huge impact on the mobile phones market.

The new BlackBerry devices have already been hit with business users and are also expected to help RIM’s breakthrough into the mainstream consumer market.

Members of MySpace, owned by global media giant NewsCorp, will be able to play the songs on the bands’ dedicated MySpace pages, although they won’t be allowed to download them onto their machines.

Users will have the ability to listen to “Electric Arguments,” the new album by McCartney’s side-project The Fireman, and long awaited Guns and Roses album “Chinese Democracy,” before the songs are in stores and at online shops like Amazon.com. The albums will be free to listen to online.

The former Beatles star Paul McCartney and Guns N’ Roses released their biggest hits on both vinyl and CD, but soon their latest albums will debut online, through the social networking site, MySpace.

Arsenal’s Theo Walcott may end up facing as much as 3 months out of the game after dislocating his shoulder on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old footballer, who has hereditary shoulder problems, suffered the injury during training ahead of Wednesday’s England friendly with Germany.

The premiership footballer is scheduled to return home to see a top consultant on Wednesday.

“As there is a weakness, there’s a high chance he could need surgery and be out until around February of next year,” said a BBC Sports reporter.