UK rules on Google’s privacy policy, Twitter adds 22 location options

10 February 2015 – Global marketing news

Google must improve its privacy policy, says Britain’s ICO

Britain’s data protection regulator has ruled that Google’s privacy policy is too vague and needs changing, as reported by Reuters.

Google’s privacy policy has been under scrutiny since March 2012 when the search giant made the decision to consolidate its 70 privacy policies into one. Its practice of collecting data from Gmail, YouTube and Google+ users was also found to be against EU regulations.

An investigation by Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that Google’s privacy policy is too vague, and said that Google is now required to sign a formal undertaking to make changes before the 30^th June, with the search engine having 2 more years after that to take further steps.

The ICO has not imposed a fine on Google, however, unlike regulators in France and Spain, which have fined the search engine 150,000 Euros and 900,000 Euros respectively.

Twitter adds over 20 new location options

Twitter has added 22 new countries as location options, as reported by Mashable.

The newly added countries include Iran, Cuba, Albania, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

Users from these countries will now be able to improve their account security by enabling two-factor authentication, and developers from these countries will also now be able to access Twitter’s developers’ platform.

Oddly, however, users from Iran and Cuba will not be able to register their mobile phone numbers on the site, meaning that they will remain unable to use the two-factor authentication or developers’ platform.

2 billion people now use social media

Over 2 billion people worldwide are now active users of social media, according to research by We Are Social.

This is a 12% increase in the number of active social media users from this time last year.

People from Argentina and the Philippines spent the most time online, spending an average of over 4 hours a day online, compared to the global average of 2 and a half hours.

Facebook retained its title as the most popular social network globally, with QZone coming top in China and VK coming top in Russia.

The report revealed that the popularity of mobile social services such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat increased significantly, showing that online behaviour overall is becoming more mobile-centric.

The report predicted that social media popularity would continue its growth throughout 2015, predicting that one third of the global population would be active on social media by the end of the year.

Baidu’s search app grew rapidly in 2014

A report published by Baidu has revealed that its mobile search app saw significant growth in 2014.

136 million mobile users searched on Baidu using their mobile devices in December 2014, up 105% on the previous year.

This increase was particularly steep for certain topics, with queries about online education, movie tickets and local services all seeing increases of over 140%.

The report also revealed that Baidu’s voice-based and picture-based search options soared in popularity in the last year.

Baidu’s dominance came despite competitors such as Alibaba, Tencent and Qihoo attempting to break into the mobile search market with their own apps.

Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, with an 80% share of the mobile search market and handling over 1 billion mobile searches every day.

SEO keyword research Baidu

Whether you're looking to launch a new website in mainland China or improve existing rankings on Baidu, identifying relevant search queries is an important starting point when dealing with China's market-leading search engine. All our researchers are experienced search marketers and being native to the Chinese market, are naturally in tune with local marketing norms and cultural nuances. We'll deliver an easy-to-use report that can be used to inform your website optimisation efforts in China.

Sponsored

Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain

Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

Latest posts by Elin Box (see all)

• 3 tips for digital marketing in Germany - March 12, 2024
• 3 useful facts about digital marketing in Vietnam in 2023 - August 24, 2023
• 3 useful facts about digital marketing in South Korea in 2023 - August 17, 2023