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So what is a zero hour contract?

The 425 million users of Google's popular email service Gmail should have no "reasonable expectation" that their messages remain private, the Californian search giant has told a United States court.

GroupM, digital holding company and part of the WPP network, have official revised their predictions for their global advertising expenditure for the remainder of 2013, citing the turbulent European economy as cause for concern.

In a press release, GroupM, parent to digital agencies Mindshare, MEC, Maxus and Mediacom, revealed their global outlook.

In the United States, advertising investment is estimated to grow just 1.8 % in 2013 to $156 billion, up from $3 billion in 2012.  A 2.9 % increase is anticipated in 2014, bringing ad spending to $161 billion.

"We estimate marginal growth in advertising spending in 2014 on a comparable component basis," said Rino Scanzoni, GroupM’s Chief Investment Officer for North America.In Western Europe, a 2.4 % decline in spending - compared to 2012  - to $97 billion. Spending in 2014 is expected to rise only 1.8 % to $99 billion.

GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith, who prepared the report, pointed to Europe's financial discord as the reason for revised budgets.

"The Eurozone periphery, specifically Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, is once again the main reason for the decline," Smith said.  

"Stabilisation is elusive. We now expect this group to record an 11% fall in measured advertising in 2013."

You can read the full press release here.

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Controversial file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has released its own web browser which claims to avoid ISP blockers and provide links to sites restricted in the UK.

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