Glitch's prank. this guy's luck. Google-operated domain service on 29 Sept 2015 sold google.com to MBA student Sanmay Ved, charged his credit card for $12, emailed him the transaction confirmation. For a glitch-created historical minute, a guy owned google.com beyond Google.

Washington Post - Max Schrems, left, and his lawyer Herwig Hofmann, right, at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Oct. 6, 2015. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

(quote)

For just $12, he bought Google.com - Babson College student, Sanmay Ved, briefly owns Google.com
For just one brief but unforgettable moment, a Babson College student owned the internet domain for the world's most heavily trafficked website. For just $12, he bought Google.com. Sanmay Ved is getting his MBA, but he used to work for Google. He was playing around with the website registration service, Google Domains. For fun, he entered "Google.com."

"I put in Google.com and it showed it was available," he said.
Much to his surprise, the domain he presumed would be unavailable, actually was. "I thought it was a mistake or something that should not happen, Google.net, is unavailable, but...(shows paperwork) as you see, Google.com is showing as available," he said, referencing screenshots.

So he took the world's most heavily trafficked website and added it to his virtual shopping cart. At check out, he was charged a mere $12. "I got the green check mark add to my cart...came into my cart as you can see and then I proceeded to check out," Ved explained. He took screen shots documenting what you have to see to believe. He even received a confirmation email. "I got the notification from my credit card company that my credit card had been charged and it had gone through," he said.

But soon after, reality struck, and another email came, saying the order had been canceled. A wave of excitement coming crashing down,, but he said it was worth the thrilling ride.
"It's really funny - I was so happy."

This Guy Owned 'Google.com' For An Entire Minute Before Google Realised - Sanmay Ved experienced something of a shock when on the 29 September 2015 for one whole minute, he became the sole owner of Google.com - What's even more amusing is that Google actually runs the domains service so had essentially sold itself to Ved. The ex-Google employee was up late scrolling through domain names, when he discovered that Google.com was actually available.

Utterly bemused at what he saw in front of him, Ved tested the water and tried to buy it. It worked. How much did it cost him? The princely sum of just $12 a year, that's all. Ved received the official notification saying that ownership had been granted to him and the amount was removed from his account.

What's even more amusing is that Google actually runs the domains service so had essentially sold itself to Ved.

Google had initially given Ved $6,006.13, which is “Google” spelled out numerically. The company then doubled the amount after finding out Ved had donated the initial reward to charity. Last fall, Sanmay Ved thought he bought the world’s most heavily trafficked site for $12, after playing around with a website registration service called Google Domains. He was amazed when his order was verified, his credit card charged, and a confirmation e-mail sent. It was a short-lived triumph. One minute later, another e-mail, telling him his order had been canceled, popped into his inbox. Google had initially given Ved $6,006.13, which is “Google” spelled out numerically (the company recommends squinting if you can’t see it). The company then doubled the amount after finding out Ved had donated the initial reward to charity.

Sanmay Ved thought his real reward was just being the guy who bought Google.com for a minute - In a stroke of luck, Ved had been searching Google Domains, Google's website-buying service, when he noticed that Google.com was available for purchase on September 29. Ved bought the domain for $12 and, he says, momentarily gained access to its webmaster tools before Google canceled the sale. When Google first told him he wouldn't get any money as a result of the accidental transaction, he said it was fine — he'd rather it be donated to charity anyway. "I don't care about the money, " Ved told Business Insider. "It was never about the money. I also want to set an example that it's people who want to find bugs that it's not always about the money."

WashingtonPost - February 2, 2016 - The massive new privacy deal between U.S. and Europe, explained (an agreement was struck down by Europe's top court about three months ago). The deal is crucial to companies such as Facebook and Google, which rely on collecting personal data seamlessly across the world.
U.S. and European regulators have agreed to a tentative deal, officials say, that would allow thousands of U.S. companies to continue moving the personal information of ordinary Europeans across the Atlantic. The new "E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield" deal will replace the original "Safe Harbor" pact — an agreement struck down by Europe's top court about three months ago, sending regulators on both sides scrambling to fashion a new arrangement that could withstand a legal challenge.

A deal is crucial to companies such as Facebook and Google, which rely on collecting personal data seamlessly across the world to sell targeted advertising to users. But Safe Harbor is also crucial to thousands of other companies, from start-ups to big multinationals such Coca-Cola and General Electric, which keep track of how customers are using their products.

What is Safe Harbor?
Back in 2000, the United States and the European Union hammered out a deal that attempted to reconcile a big difference between European and U.S. laws when it comes to privacy: Europe believes privacy is a fundamental right, and has data protection promises built into its charter. In the United States, there are some federal protections for things like credit and health care information, but there's no single national law that lays out privacy rights.

Safe Harbor basically gave companies the okay to move Europeans' data to the United States if they committed to a set of general principles loosely based on European privacy law. And that agreement became even more important to tech companies in recent years because they routinely bounce information around data centers around the world.

Reuters Exclusive - February 3, 2016 - New European, U.S. data transfer pact agreed
European and U.S. negotiators agreed a data pact on Tuesday that should prevent European Union regulators from restricting data transfers by companies such as Google and Amazon across the Atlantic.

The announcement of the pact, which still requires political approval, coincides with two days of talks in Brussels, where European data protection authorities were poised to restrict data transfers unless a deal was clinched. The European Commission said that the new Privacy Shield would place stronger obligations on U.S. companies to protect Europeans' personal data and ensure stronger monitoring and enforcement by U.S. agencies.

THUMBS UP - The accord received a thumbs up from lobbying groups.

However, Max Schrems, the Austrian law student whose court case against Facebook in Ireland sank Safe Harbour, expressed doubts about the validity of the pact, saying on his website that he is not sure whether the system would stand up to legal challenge. European Digital Rights, an umbrella group of digital civil rights bodies, described the agreement as flawed. "The emperor is trying on a new set of clothes. Today's announcement means that European citizens and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic face an extended period of uncertainty while waiting for this new stop-gap solution to fail," Executive Director Joe McNamee said.

(unquote)

Image courtesy businessinsider.com, Sanmay Ved and Geert Vanden Wijngaert / Washington Post