British: improving, getting better, improved, enhanced, on the up and up, it makes a change
American: honest and not trying to trick anyone, honest, sincere, fine, genuine, decent, truthful, principled, irreproachable, good, upstanding.
My sister has just got a new job. The company has given her a house and a car as part of the deal – things are on the up for her! - vont de mieux en mieux
The economy is on the up now that the new government is in power. They've already helped to create thousands of new jobs
In Belgium, you have the opportunity to watch the "Travel Channel" in American English. If you choose the Dutch package, Belgacom TV offers you Dutch subtitles (given the price charged, the word "offer" is quite misleading ;=)). This way, I listen to magazines spoken in English while reading the translation in Dutch. It's a perilous exercise very demanding in terms of concentration but it's quite efficient. I watched "Bizarre Foods America" several times for fun... Thankfully, this magazine about junk food is broadcast just before dinner time (Belgium). After seeing the most unbelievable street foods in America you are not hungry anymore. However, there is more good news: for the same price you can learn two languages at once while dieting!
When you
sign up to a social networking site, who owns your data? You or the site? And
if you want to leave, are you allowed to erase that content or do companies
like Facebook or Google actually own it?
David Ried
reports on the new European Commission directive that aims to put you back in
charge of your data. The directive should safeguard the right of the Internet
users. The European commission put a video online to highlight the fact that
most consumers are not aware of the way their personal data are harvested and
reused.
The new
data protection directive aim to put people in charge of their data, to reverse
the assumption that data harvested by company are theirs because they offer you
a service. The heart of the directive is that personal data are yours, it
belongs to you, always.
You should
be able to know what they have got on you, what are they are using it for, and
they should ask the permission to process it or sell it on. Company can’t go
foraging for data in the wild without any rules. According to the directive,
they also have to tell you when there has been a serious breach and when you
data have been compromised in anyway.
They can’t
go on fishing expedition to get hold of any data they can get their hands on
and keep hold of it for as long as they want to make money of it.
They also
have to delete your data instead of move it to another file on their server.
Even if
they say they are collecting your data anonymously, the danger is that when the
information is sold to commercial bodies, they match it up with data coming
from different sources and all of a sudden, you become identifiable.
Vocabulary
To sift through to examine information, documents etc in order to find what you are looking for
Sift every grain of information until you find the answer
Bomb experts continue to sift the blast site.
The small print the details of something such as a contract that are printed in very small letters and often contain conditions that limit your rights. The usual American word is fine print.
To put back in charge
To put you back in charge of your personal data. Reprendre la main sur
Safeguard someone/something against something to protect something or someone from being harmed or having problems
We hope that world leaders can agree on a plan to safeguard the environment. Sauvegarder, protéger
The company was blamed for failing to safeguard workers against dangerous chemicals.
Assumption
My assumption is based on the available evidence. Hypothèse, supposition
Harvest
They can’t harvest personal data without telling it to you. Moissonner
To forage to search in a wide area for something, especially food,to use your hands to search inside something, for example a pocket or a bag
They spend their days foraging for food around the city.
A breach of a failure to follow a law or rule, a failure to do something that you have promised to do or that people expect you to do
Reproduction of the CD constitutes a breach of copyright. violation
If you don't deliver on time, you could be sued for breach of contract.
a situation in which someone does something that goes against accepted rules of social behaviour
breach of trust/confidentiality
a clear breach of patient confidentiality
an embarrassing breach of etiquette
To be in breach of something
The company was found to be in breach of environmental regulations.
To match up if one thing matches up with another, or if they match up, they are the same or have similar qualities
Information received from the two informants didn't match up.
to find someone or something that forms the right combination with someone or something else
You have to match up the inventor to the invention.
to match up to someone/something to be as good as someone or something
The British sci-fi film has never matched up to its American counterpart.
To match up to expectations
His performance has not matched up to expectations.
All well and good used for saying that you are satisfied with a situation, or with some aspects of a situation but not with others
If old people can be looked after at home, it’s all well and good, but they need the facilities as well. c'est bien beau
