ISO 14001: 2015 offers more than 300,000 businesses worldwide (and approximately 17,000 businesses in the UK) a guide on how to set up and run an effective environmental management system (EMS).
Telecommunications technology has made it possible to share information in volumes and at speeds that would once have been unthinkable. Together, companies and statutory bodies hold huge amounts of data about each of us. Storing this information helps organizations provide better service, but there are obvious risks. Private data can be used for fraud, blackmail or simply to pry into people’s lives.
It is not new for children to be using the internet, but the growth of mobile devices is changing the mode of access. The Kitemark for Child Safety Online Software offers parents a quick way to ensure products can be used safely.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working on a new standard for global web payments. The organization hopes that harmonizing shopping formats will assist both shoppers and vendors by streamlining and standardizing the check-out process.
Broadcast and communications regulator Ofcom is to assume responsibility for regulating video-on-demand services, including Channel 4's All4 and Sky's Now TV.
The media and telecommunications conglomerate BT has made an official submission to the UK media regulator Ofcom regarding its Openreach broadband division; in its statement, BT claims that separating from its Openreach division would harm the UK's reputation as a digital leader.
The BBC will back the scrapping of the BBC Trust, which oversees its activities, to be replaced by an external regulator. The change would leave the BBC with a single board of directors, making it resemble a traditional corporation.
As technology develops and facial recognition becomes more advanced and widely adopted by the authorities, worries over a lack of regulation regarding its use are growing. According to the UK Authority website, ministers in the UK are voicing their concern over the retention of images on the Police National Database and some are calling for an inquiry into the practice.
The Safe Harbour pact, which provides for the personal data of EU citizens to be sent to the US, has been ruled invalid by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The ruling is likely to throw many internet companies into disarray as they scramble to ensure they comply with EU law.
