Public Policy Blog
Updates on technology policy issues
VetNet: A place for veterans and military spouses to build civilian careers
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Posted by Andy Berndt, Creative Lab
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
For several years now, we’ve been working to help the veteran community through outreach programs and by connecting veterans and their families to useful Google products and services. For example, we’ve built tools like the
Veterans Job Bank
to connect veterans with employers, today populated with more than a million jobs. And we created a
Resume Builder
to help job-seekers represent their experience in just a few clicks with Google Docs.
After years of working with the community, we’ve come to realize that it isn’t more tools that are needed, but rather organizing the ones that already exist, and making them easier to find. Perhaps the most complex challenge facing the veteran community today is the sheer volume of resources available to help them transition to civilian life. While this abundance is the measure of a grateful nation, and a tribute to those who served, in the end, the most important result is individuals and families getting the help they need.
With this in mind, we’ve put the powers of
Google+
behind a single hub called
VetNet
. Today, VetNet launches as a partnership with three founding organizations: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s
Hiring Our Heroes
program, the
Institute for Veterans and Military Families
(IVMF) and
Hire Heroes USA
. In the long run, other organizations will be able to offer their services to the veteran community, all in the same easy-to-use place.
Through VetNet, these founding partners offer a full spectrum of employment resources for members of the community. Whether starting a job search from scratch, looking for mentors in a specific industry or starting a business, transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses will be able to connect with career services, job opportunities and each other.
All of the content and resources are organized into three tracks by objective, each hosted on its own Google+ page.
Basic Training Track
(
google.com/+VetNetBasic
): The place to start. From resumes to interviewing tips to advice from buddies. Dial into our first
Resume Workshop
today at 3pm EST.
Career Connections Track
(
google.com/+VetNetCareer
): Walmart, GE and Capital One are just a few of the companies that are participating in VetNet to help veterans and military spouses find civilian careers. Check out today’s
Vets In Finance panel
at 2pm EST.
Entrepreneur Track
(
google.com/+VetNetEntrepreneur
): An 8-week college-level course on the fundamentals of starting a business, starting next week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
To stay abreast of the most exciting events happening across all tracks, follow
+VetNetHQ
on Google+.
We’re proud to join forces with the Chamber, IVMF and Hire Heroes USA—to help them do what they do so well, and to simplify the process of finding and using resources for the veterans community. Our hope is simply to connect help to those who need it. If you’re a member of the community looking any career advice or help, get started at
VetNetHQ.com
. For those of us who have not served, please do what you can to spread word of VetNet to those who have.
Transparency Report: Government requests on the rise
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Posted by Dorothy Chou, Senior Policy Analyst
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
We think it’s important to shine a light on how government actions could affect our users. When we first launched the
Transparency Report
in early 2010, there wasn’t much data out there about how governments sometimes hamper the free flow of information on the web. So we took our first step toward greater transparency by disclosing the number of government requests we received. At the time, we weren’t sure how things would look beyond that first snapshot, so we pledged to release numbers twice a year. Today we’re updating the Transparency Report with data about government requests from January to June 2012.
This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise. As you can see from the graph below, government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report. In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.
The number of government requests to remove content from our services was largely flat from 2009 to 2011. But it’s spiked in this reporting period. In the first half of 2012, there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content.
You can see the country-by-country trends for requests to hand over
user data
and to
remove content
from our services in the Transparency Report itself, but in aggregate around the world, the numbers continue to go up.
As always, we continue to improve the Transparency Report with each data release. Like before, we’re including
annotations
for this time period with interesting facts. We’re also
showing new bar graphs
with data in addition to tables to better display content removal trends over time. We’ve now translated the entire Transparency Report into 40 languages, and we’ve expanded our FAQ—including one that explains how we sometimes
receive falsified court orders
asking us to remove content. We do our best to verify the legitimacy of the documents we receive, and if we determine that any are fake, we don’t comply.
The information we disclose is only an isolated sliver showing how governments interact with the Internet, since for the most part we don’t know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies. But we’re heartened that in the past year, more companies like
Dropbox
,
LinkedIn
,
Sonic.net
and
Twitter
have begun to share their statistics too. Our hope is that over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open.
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