Philippine-made ‘Pinyapel’ is among the winners of the D&AD Future Impact Awards for Environment and Sustainability in New York City.

The ‘Pinyapel’, which came from the Filipino words pinya (pineapple) and papel (paper), is made from discarded pineapple leaves from pineapple plantations of Bukidnon.

According to the statement of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the product was coined and developed by the DTI – Design Center of the Philippines (DCP), with the collaborative efforts of the DCP, Cagayan de Oro Handmade Paper, Nature’s Fresh and Ideatechs Packaging Corporation.

“Rather than leaving pineapple leaves to rot, the DTI-DCP partnered with Cagayan de Oro Handmade Paper to launch a sustainable innovation to transform waste into new and useful material, a forward-thinking approach to combat the growing problem on non-biodegradable plastic,” according to the DTI.

The award will be given on November 6 in New York City.—AAC

Google does not have to remove links to sensitive personal data globally, the European Union’s top court said on Tuesday (September 24) as it ruled on the fight between the U.S. tech giant and French privacy regulators.

France’s privacy watchdog CNIL in 2016 fined Google 100,000 euros for refusing to delist sensitive information from internet search results globally upon request in what is called the ‘right to be forgotten.’

The cases are C-507/17 Google and C-136/17 G.C. e.a.

The European Commission proposed in 2012 that people should have a “right to be forgotten” on the Internet. This was watered down by the European Parliament last year in favor of a “right to erasure” of specific information.

The issues of privacy and data protection in Europe have become all the more sensitive since a former U.S. intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked details last year of U.S. surveillance programs for monitoring vast quantities of emails and phone records worldwide. (REUTERS)

(Production Clement Rossignol, Christian Levaux)

The remains of a missing man who had been missing for 22 years was found by a former resident of the Grand Isles community in Wellington, Florida (United States) while checking his old neighborhood through Google Earth.

He then contacted the current owner of the house and used his personal drone to confirm the report. He immediately reported the incident to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBCSO).

Authorities conducted a retrieval operation and found skeletons inside the car. Upon investigation, they were able to confirm the identity of the remains.

“On September 10, 2019, the remains were positively identified as William Moldt, who was reported missing on November 8, 1997,” according to the post of the (PBCSO).—AAC