Did Facebook News Feed Experiment Break Law?

A psychological study carried out by Facebook on its users without their consent is being investigated by the UK data watchdog.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will question the social network to establish whether strict data protection laws were broken.

If laws were contravened, the site could face a large fine.

The ICO said it will also contact the Irish data protection body because Facebook has its European headquarters in Dublin.

A spokesman told Sky News: "We're aware of this issue, and will be speaking to Facebook, as well as liaising with the Irish data protection authority, to learn more about the circumstances."

The test saw Facebook manipulate the news feeds of around 700,000 users, to see how restricting the visibility of happy or sad updates from friends affected their behaviour on the site.

But Facebook's Richard Allen said the site had implemented "appropriate protections" for people's information, adding: "We are happy to answer any questions regulators may have."

The ICO spokesman said it was too early to tell which part of the law Facebook may have breached.

The regulator has the power to fine organisations up to £500,000 and force them to change their policies if personal data is misused or processed without consent.

Facebook's week-long study took place in 2012 and found that if users were shown fewer positive stories they were more likely to post negative updates, and vice versa.

Mr Allen added: "It's clear that people were upset by this study and we take responsibility for it.

"We want to do better in the future and are improving our process based on this feedback."

Adam Kramer, a researcher on the project, said the research benefits of the study may not have justified "all of this anxiety".

He said: "The goal of all our research at Facebook is to learn how to provide a better service.

"Having written and designed this experiment myself, I can tell you that our goal was never to upset anyone."

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Sports Direct £200m Bonus Deal Gets EGM OK

Sports Direct shareholders have agreed to implement a deal that could see founder Mike Ashley and other staff offered a bonus pot worth up to £200m.

More than 60% of shareholders at the sporting apparel firm's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) agreed to implement the bonus scheme for 2015.

The company had announced the proposed resolution on June 9, seeking approval for the bonuses, if profit targets are met, for Mr Ashley and other staff.

Mr Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United and is the majority shareholder in Sports Direct, has not drawn a salary from his successful sporting business.

The bonus plan is the fourth attempt the company has made to reward Mr Ashley.

In addition to not taking a salary, Mr Ashley has not received a bonus from the retailer.

The most recent attempt to reward Mr Ashley suffered a shareholder rejection as the bonus plan did not include certain other key executives.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) raised concerns about the bonus proposal, on Tuesday, citing corporate governance concerns.

It said in a statement: "Sports Direct is seeking to push through excessively generous pay arrangements for Mr Ashley.

"The IoD is concerned that it is suggestive of weak underlying governance at the company."

The Local Pensions Fund Forum and Association of British Insurers previously asked investors to oppose the plan.

Mr Ashley established Sports Direct in 1982, and the company has grown quickly amid struggles by high street rivals.

It also owns a number of brands which are sold through its outlets.

Department store Debenhams recently announced Sports Direct concessions would be trialled in a number of its outlets.

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BAE Gets US Deal For 'Anti-Insurgent' Missile

UK defence giant BAE Systems has been chosen to further develop its 'anti-insurgent' missile system for the US military.

The Naval Air Systems Command said it intends to enter into sole source negotiations with the US subsidiary of the British firm to develop the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II).

The project expands integration into the arsenal used on aircraft, including the A-10 'Warthog'.

The existing semi-active laser-guided APKWS system is designed as a cheaper alternative to the Hellfire missile, at around a third of the cost - $30,000 (£17,000).

The Hellfire has become renowned for use on Predator and Reaper drones and was originally designed to target armoured vehicles.

The APKWS is designed to destroy lightly armoured and "soft" vehicles, moving or stationary, in urban locations.

It can be armed with high explosives or flechettes - steel darts - in the warhead.

Earlier this year trials were carried out firing the missile from the A-10 and the new missiles hit within inches of their target.

The MkI version has been used in Afghanistan against insurgents (pic: USMC)

It is based on a 2.75 in (70mm) rocket with guidance 'canard' lead fins, and the new version has improved laser control for accurate targeting.

The original development plan for the precision weapon began in 2002 and the first version has been in full production for three years and used in war zones such as Afghanistan.

It has been fired from more than a dozen aircraft types and been sold to US allies including Jordan, for use on its airborne gunships.

BAE Systems programme manager Joe Tiano told Sky News: "Our APKWS laser-guided rocket has a long history of success in theatre and in testing on multiple platforms including the A-10, and we look forward to exploring additional opportunities for integration on the A-10."

The sole source award to BAE Systems sees a continuation of its rehabilitation in the eyes of US authorities.

In 2010 it pleaded guilty in a US court to making false statements over foreign corruption, along with arms export and trafficking violations.

It was fined $400m (£230m), which at the time was one of the largest criminal fines ever levied in the US against a company for business-related violations.

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Mothercare Shares Bounce With Joy On New Bid

Shares in Mothercare have risen sharply, after the retailer said it had rejected a takeover offer for the second time.

In early London trades shares in the company rose by more than 15% before dropping to around 11% up.

The latest proposal from North American company Destination Maternity, valued the UK firm at about £266m.

Mothercare has over 1,400 stores worldwide and in January issued a profit warning after poor UK sales.

The company has 220 UK stores branded as Mothercare and Early Learning Centres.

Destination Maternity, which is the world's largest designer and retailer of maternity wear with more 1,900 retail sites, has so far failed to persuade the board of Mothercare to engage in talks over its interest.

It disclosed that it has tabled two approaches to the struggling UK chain, with its latest cash and shares proposal on June 1 valuing Mothercare at 300p a share.

Mothercare recently recorded UK losses of £21.5m following a drop in annual sales of 7.5%.

It also is looking for a new chief executive after Simon Calver quit following poor Christmas trading.

Destination Maternity planned on introducing brands such as 'A Pea In The Pod' and 'Motherhood Maternity' to Mothercare's UK stores and international franchise stores.

The proposals would combine the two firms within a new UK holding company that would be listed in the United States.

Destination Maternity chief executive Ed Krell said: "We have long been familiar with Mothercare and hold the company's UK heritage and successful track record of international expansion in the very highest regard."

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JPMorgan CEO Diagnosed With Throat Cancer

The boss of US banking giant JPMorgan Chase has confirmed he is being treated for throat cancer.

In a memo to staff, CEO Jamie Dimon said the ailment is curable.

He also intends to remain actively involved in running the banking business, which is America's biggest.

Mr Dimon, 58, has never been a smoker.

He said the cancer was caught at an early stage, following tests within the last two weeks after he started feeling unwell.

He will undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatment for around two months.

Mr Dimon said: "I feel very good now and will let all of you know if my health situation changes."

"Importantly, there is no evidence of cancer elsewhere in my body."

He has been in charge of the bank for more than eight years and is credited with navigating the business through the fallout of the global financial crisis.

However, JPMorgan has hit recent trouble and has been tarnished as a result.

It lost $6.2bn (£3.6bn) over the so-called London Whale derivative bets in 2012, with the scandal prompting shareholders to try to push for Mr Dimon to drop his joint role as chairman.

And last year it agreed a $13bn (£7.6bn) settlement with the US government for overstating the quality of mortgages it sold to investors before the crash.

In January, it agreed to pay more than $2bn (£1.16bn) to settle claims related to Bernard Madoff's fraudulent ponzi scheme.

The US Treasury Department criticised "critical and widespread deficiencies" in its programmes to prevent money laundering and other suspicious activity.

Shares in the bank were down 0.6% in after-market trades on Tuesday, following news of the diagnosis.

In his memo, Mr Dimon told staff his treatment is still being finalised and it would curtail his travel.

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Poor Performers Set To Bag Bonus Due To Flaws

Flaws in contracts to provide the Government's flagship welfare-to-work scheme means tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash faces being paid out in bonuses to even the worst performing firms, according to the Whitehall spending watchdog.

Incentive payments were supposed to reward high performance in the Work Programme, where providers are paid to help get the unemployed into long-term work.

But the National Audit Office (NAO) said the performance measure chosen by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) meant all 40 main contractors involved in the scheme were expected to qualify for them.

The NAO report stated: "Flawed contractual performance measures mean the Department will have to make incentive payments to even the worst performing contractors."

The cost to the public is likely to be around £31m in 2014-15, while using a more accurate measure of performance would mean just £6m being paid out.

Overall, the DWP faces paying out £61m in the period to 2017-18, while the NAO said it should have cost around £17m.

The NAO has also said the way the contracts were drawn up also made it more expensive to sack poor-performing providers.

And despite claims by ministers that the Work Programme would be an improvement on previous schemes, the NAO said that the actual performance levels were very similar.

Figures for the most recent group to have gone through the scheme showed just 32% of the participants found jobs - still below the DWP's minimum performance level of 33% and well below its original forecast of 39% and the 42% predicted by the contractors themselves.

Performance for the harder-to-help groups was also below expectations, with only 11% of claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA) - paid to those with disability or long-term illness - finding work compared to a forecast of 22%.

Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons' Public Accounts Committee, which oversees the work of the NAO, said she was "angry" at the failure of the DWP to help those who needed it the most.

But the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), representing Work Programme providers, insisted the scheme was working well.

"It's quite an achievement that performance is the same level as predecessor programmes despite there being less cash in the scheme and a more challenging economic backdrop," said ERSA chief executive Kirsty McHugh .

Unusually, the report was not signed off by the DWP prior to publication on the grounds that it did not reflect its view of "the relevant facts".

The department said that no incentive payments had been made so far, and that any future payments would be included in ongoing contract negotiations.

A DWP spokesman said: "Even starting in the recession, the Work Programme performed as well as previous schemes, and with performance improving rapidly it's on track to deliver significantly more jobs than previous schemes."

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Internet Firms Take Legal Action Against GCHQ

Seven internet companies have filed a legal complaint calling for an end to GCHQ's alleged use of "malicious software" to break into their networks.

The case against the Government's listening post has been submitted on behalf of internet service providers (ISPs) in seven countries; the UK, the US, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zimbabwe.

The complaints are based on articles published earlier this year in German magazine Der Spiegel, which included claims that employees at a Belgian telecoms group were targeted with malicious software.

It was also reported that intelligence agencies have a range of network exploitation and intrusion capabilities to infect users.

In addition, the reports claimed that German internet exchange points were targeted, allowing agencies to spy on all internet traffic coming through those nodes.

It is alleged by the ISPs that such attacks are a breach of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and interfere with the privacy rights of the employees under the European Convention of Human Rights.

It is the first time GCHQ has faced such an action.

Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: "These widespread attacks on providers and collectives undermine the trust we all place on the internet and greatly endangers the world's most powerful tool for democracy and free expression.

"It completely cripples our confidence in the internet economy and threatens the rights of all those who use it. These unlawful activities, run jointly by GCHQ and the NSA, must come to an end immediately."

The complaint has been filed with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the London court which rules on complaints about intelligence agencies and misuse of surveillance data by government organisations.

The ISPs involved in the action are UK-based GreenNet, Jinbonet (South Korea), Riseup (US), Greenhost (Netherlands), Mango (Zimbabwe), May First/People Link (US) and the Chaos Computer Club (Germany).

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House Prices 'Rise Above 2007 Peak Values'

Average house prices have risen above their 2007 peak values, according to a monthly housing survey.

The Nationwide said that in seasonally-adjusted terms, prices reached the peak in the end of the second quarter.

It said that prices in June recorded their 14th successive monthly rise, up 1% on May's value.

Seen in annual terms, the average rise was 11.8%, making it the fastest pace of growth for nine years.

That annual figure was up from 11.1% recorded in May.

Although rises were seen across the country, with an average home worth almost £189,000, disparity continues to grow.

Nationwide house prices from 2007 peak (white line at 100%) until June 2014

The high street lender said: "While all regions recorded annual price gains for the fourth quarter in a row, there is still significant variation across the UK, with the South of England continuing to record the strongest rates of growth.

"In particular, London continued to outperform, with prices up by almost 26% in Q2 compared to the same period in 2013."

It added: "The price of a typical property in London reached the £400,000 mark for the first time, with prices in the capital now around 30% above their 2007 highs and more than twice the level prevailing in the rest of the UK when London is excluded.

"In the UK as a whole, prices are less than 1% above their pre-crisis peak. Excluding London they are 0.4% below peak."

Nationwide said newly-implemented stress tests to ensure borrowers can afford a 3% base rate rise, and 85% of applicants limited to 4.5 times loan-to-income levels are "unlikely to have a significant impact" on transactions or growth in the near term.

It also believes as a result of the measures, prices should not become "detached from earnings".

Mounting expectation of the Bank of England (BoE) raising the base rate have probably helped cool market activity, the lender said.

But it warned that attempts by the BoE's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) to help overcome significant problems in the UK housing market were being hampered by forces outside of its control.

Nationwide said: "It is important to note that the FPC does not have the tools to address the fundamental problem in the housing market – the lack of supply.

"While there are encouraging signs that the pace of construction has picked up, the pace of house building is still well below the expected pace of household formation."

The survey comes as construction data for June indicates a four-month high in homebuilding.

The monthly Markit/Cips purchasing managers' index also showed the fastest pace of hiring in the sector since 1997.

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Seized Silk Road Bitcoins Won By Single Bidder

A venture capitalist has bought nearly 30,000 bitcoins which were seized in the FBI raid on the notorious black market site Silk Road.

Some 45 bidders were registered for the online auction, in which the haul was split into nine blocks of 3,000 bitcoins.

But the US Marshals Service (USMS), which organised the sale, said one bidder had won the entire amount.

Bitcoin trading platform Vaurum later released a statement saying Tim Draper - one of its backers - was the buyer.

It said: "Of course, no one is totally secure in holding their own country's currency. We want to enable people to hold and trade bitcoin to secure themselves against weakening currencies."

Alleged Silk Road owner Ross William Ulbricht

Vaurum chief executive Avish Bhama said Mr Draper would partner with Vaurum to leverage the pool of about 30,000 bitcoin as a liquidity source in emerging markets.

He said: "It's still quite difficult to get access to bitcoin in these developing economies - and that's exactly where it is needed the most."

At the current bitcoin value of $642 (£374) the bitcoins would be worth around $19.2m (£11m) on the bitcoin markets.

Some 45 bidders registered for the online auction, with each putting down a deposit of $200,000 (£116,500).

Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in October last year

The USMS said 63 bids were received, and the winner was notified on Monday evening. The bitcoins were transferred on Tuesday.

Hedge funds and syndicates were among those who made bids for the bitcoins.

The Silk Road online hub was notorious for transactions involving illegal drugs and criminal activities, and was shut down last October.

The bitcoins were contained on Silk Road servers.

Ross William Ulbricht, who is alleged to be the owner of Silk Road, has been charged by the US with drug trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.

He denies all of the charges.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency which is not backed by any government or central bank.

Each bitcoin is 'mined' by users who use powerful computers to carry out complex mathematical equations.

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Trainline Gets Bank On Board For £400m Float

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The owner of Britain's biggest online rail booking operation is accelerating towards a debut on the stock market after hiring bankers to prepare a £400m flotation.

Sky News understands that Exponent, a private equity firm, has appointed Morgan Stanley to oversee a potential listing, which would come in spite of disappointment over the performance of technology listings in London so far this year.

Companies including AO World, a digital channel for white goods sales, and Just Eat, an online takeaway service, attracted strong demand ahead of their listings but both have traded down since going public.

Exponent has held a controlling stake in Trainline since 2006.

The timing of a flotation is uncertain and an outright sale to another investor is a possibility, sources said.

Trainline's recent performance has been strong, and Exponent is understood to believe it possesses a sufficiently visible growth profile to reassure prospective investors.

It made around £9m in profit in the year to March 2013, despite having to pay £2m in fees to advisers who led an unsuccessful sale process.

The business, which handles ticket sales for the majority of UK rail operating companies, added two million customers in the year to March and has seen its digital app downloaded more than six million times since its launch.

The company also said that its site was the most popular travel app on iPhone and Android devices.

In an attempt to drive the shift to mobile usage of its site, Trainline reshuffled its top management earlier this month, recruiting Clare Gilmartin, a former eBay manager, as its new chief executive.

Murray Hennessy became deputy chairman following Ms Gilmartin's appointment.

Established in 1999, Trainline was bought by Exponent for about £160m from a consortium which included Virgin, Stagecoach and National Express.

A previous attempt to sell the business in 2012 collapsed when bidders including Priceline.com, the US-based bookings site, and a Canadian pension fund declined to meet the owner's asking price.

Exponent subsequently paid itself a multimillion pound dividend from Trainline as part of a £190m refinancing.

The company faced a sudden loss of revenue in 2012 when the Department for Transport (DfT) decided to strip Virgin Trains of the West Coast mainline franchise and award it to FirstGroup.

However, that decision was overturned after embarrassing flaws in the bidding process were exposed, triggering an overhaul of the entire rail franchising system.

Last week, Virgin won a further two-year extension to run the line, one of the UK's most lucrative, prompting Sir Richard Branson to pledge to bid again for the next licence period.

As well as its own website, Trainline's runs digital sales operations for the majority of train operating companies and has expanded overseas, serving major companies and travel agents as clients.

Exponent declined to comment.

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