It just never seems to end for Google and privacy. Frankly, we could probably dedicate an entire blog to just the web giant and its privacy trials and tribulations. But as for the former – trials – apparently in a case that’s the first of its kind, Spain’s Data Protection Agency is suing Google on behalf of about 90 Spanish citizens who want links to information about them that Google has indexed taken down… [AP]

But it isn’t just Spain that’s less than thrilled with Google lately. Yesterday, we mentioned how The Netherlands was the latest country to take issue with its 2010 Street View chicanery. Today, we want to highlight how on Monday, the FTC “called out” Google for being the only major browser that has yet to adopt “Do Not Track” technology – something Firefox, Internet Explorer, and even Safari have rolled out to users… [ComputerWorld]

And yet, despite all of it, Google apparently is atop the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s new privacy report card, along with Amazon and Twitter… [ZDNet]

Oh, and just to update you on something we mentioned yesterday – Sophos’ open letter to Facebook, and Facebook’s latest privacy improvements – not surprisingly, Sophos was underwhelmed by Facebook’s efforts… [eWeek]

So, I’m not sure this should really shock iPhone owners, if they think about the services/apps their iPhone provides, but it was revealed yesterday that your iPhone tracks your every move, with timestamps, in a “secret” file that gets transferred to your computer’s hard drive when you plug your iPhone in to it… [Guardian]

And one person who was particularly concerned with this revelation apparently was Senator Al Franken, recently tapped to head the Senate’s new Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, who wrote Apple a letter pointing out the dangers of storing this information on phones unencrypted, and posed a series of corrollary questions for the company… [AdWeek]

When Microsoft released its latest version of Internet Explorer – IE9 – one of the biggest new features it offered users was a “Do Not Track” opt-out of ad tracking. Well, it’s not alone in integrating such a feature into the latest version of its browser, as Apple did the same in the recently minted version of its Safari browser… [paidcontent.org]

While it might be encouraging to some that John Kerry and John McCain just introduced a new digital privacy bill recently, it would probably be naive to think that even if it passes, it will mean companies won’t be able to “find” us online…of course, that’s doesn’t really seem to be the point of the new legislation (so much as it is being transparent about what’s being collected, why, and offering the ability to opt out), but I’m just reporting what I read… [CNN]

Oh, and don’t be surprised if you see numerous articles to this effect popping up around the web while the new privacy bill is making its way around congress – “Five Big Problems With The New Privacy Bill of Rights”… [PC World]

Finally, according to a study of 65 Columbia students, the University researchers looking into Facebook privacy controls concluded that those controls are “fundamentally flawed” because the students studied were “either unintentionally sharing information they’d intended not to or unable to share something as desired” and were either “unable to correct” their settings as desired or “had given up trying”… [Chicago Tribune]

So yeah, yesterday we mentioned that Google was reportedly planning on adding a feature to its Goggles app that would allow users to pull in a person’s information just by taking a picture of the person with their phone. Well, according to Google, that ain’t happening… [The Inquirer]

Elsewhere in creepy innovations (literally) – Creepy is a new app (for Windows or Linux) that apparently can tell the user geolocation information for any person who uses Foursquare, Twitter, and/or Flickr to disclose their location – indicating where that user “spends most of his/her time”… [Lifehacker]

And today in privacy litigation – apparently LinkedIn is the latest web giant to get sued for allegedly violating its users’ privacy. Apparently a California man thinks the fact that LinkedIn discloses a users unique ID to third party advertisers (allowing them to place a tracking cookie on his computer, and identify him by name) means a court should award him damages for violating his privacy, though LinkedIn thinks the case lacks merit… [Mediapost]

Finally, we’ve mentioned how some companies aren’t waiting for government to regulate privacy (or at least implement the FTC’s proposed “Do Not Track” concept), including browser makers like Microsoft and Mozilla. Apparently also implementing “Do Not Track” is the AP News Registry… [The Mozilla Blog]

It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned Google Street View and foreign governments, but apparently that doesn’t mean that the discussion is over. France – which had been investigating Google’s Street View efforts for potential illegality under French law – finally announced that as a result of its Street View tactics, it was fining Google 100,000 Euros (or about $142,000)… [AFP]

Increasingly, as we talk about where the current state of digital privacy on the web is headed, we’re seeing more and more advertisers and site owners looking to take the steps to comply with “Do Not Track” on their own, or at least find ways to continue enjoying autonomy while also trying to comply with what the government has been kicking around (in an effort to avoid becoming subject to the government’s regulation)… [San Francisco Chronicle]

Recently, it was reported that President Obama may be considering Google CEO Eric Schmidt to succeed current Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. But as this position would make him a voice in the governmental online privacy debate, Consumer Watchdog – a privacy-focused non-profit – cautions against this move…likening it to making Bernie Madoff head of the SEC… [Press Release]

And while we’re talking about government’s role in shaping digital privacy policy – don’t listen to those who will try to scare you into thinking “Do Not Track” is bad for the market… [eWeek]

Like we said yesterday, no company is immune to the current privacy scrutiny going on in this country, and perhaps looking to seize on the current climate, a class action suit was just filed against Netflix for “retaining data about users’ movie rental history and recommendations” after users have canceled their accounts… [MediaPost]

With Microsoft now integrating privacy-focused tools into IE9, and generally showing an openness to self-regulation when it comes to privacy, the heat may be on its giant brethren Google (which hasn’t exactly been a paragon of privacy protection) and Apple (which hasn’t been part of the privacy conversation at all so far) to follow suit… [paidcontent.org]

But again, if IE isn’t your browser of choice, and you’re a Firefox user, there are already add-ons you can use to block ad tracking, and here’s the latest add-on in that vein – “Do Not Track Plus,” which implements the “Do Not Track” feature as proposed by the FTC a couple of months back… [PC World]

And as for Apple and privacy, since its browser Safari blocks 3rd party cookies that advertisers typically use to track users, and Safari is the default browser on all of its iOS devices, clicks from paid search advertisements go uncounted about 80% of the time when the click comes from a user on an iOS device (according to a recent study conducted by Marin Software)… [TechCrunch]

A couple of days ago, we mentioned how Senators John McCain and John Kerry were attempting to introduce a digital privacy bill of rights…well, it seems our fearless leader (or at least his administration) supports that concept and effort… [WSJ]

Well, Google probably could have cautioned online marketplace site Etsy against this move (since it was similar to the way Google rolled out Buzz last year)…nevertheless, Etsy yesterday made all of its users’ activity on the site public by default… [Business Insider]

But almost as soon as it flipped that switch on, it realized the error it had made and switched it back off… [Etsy]

Yesterday, the FTC settled its complaint with Twitter over what it deemed to be insufficient security measures that led to Twitter users accounts being hacked in the past. As part of the settlement, Twitter has agreed to “establish a more rigorous information-security policy to prevent user accounts from being hijacked” in the future… [eWeek]

But Twitter isn’t the only party the FTC settled with yesterday. The Commission also settled a complaint with the online ad provider Chitika, in which it had charged that the service was continuing to track users who had actually opted out of their tracking… [Washington Post]

And finally, Microsoft launched the latest version of Internet Explorer – IE 9 – yesterday, which as we’ve been mentioning for far too long here also includes a feature that allows users to opt out of ad tracking… [WSJ]

But if you’re not interested in using IE 9, you can still disable third party (tracking) cookies in Firefox and Chrome…here’s how… [CNET]

We’ve seen a lot of industry players recently calling for the online ad industry to regulate its own practices, in order to avoid government imposed regulation. Well, the latest to call for that self-regulation is none other than director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, David Vladeck… [Mediapost]

But while most of the discussion and scrutiny in the online privacy realm (specifically with respect to legislation) has come from our side of the Atlantic, apparently the EU is actually proposing a new law that would require EU websites to get explicit permission from users in order to “track” them… [TechCrunch]

Finally, apparently there are sites/companies out there that pay users a commission every time they allow themselves to be tracked by advertisers…so, the Wall Street Journal is wondering – “would you sell your private information to advertisers?” [WSJ]

Most often when we mention specific companies in conjunction with privacy issues, it has been the usual suspects – Google and Facebook. But another major digital US company – Amazon – has found itself in litigation related to privacy as well, for allegedly circumventing the Internet Explorer browser’s privacy controls to collect information about users that it might not otherwise be able to collect… [MediaPost]

But while some people are so worried about others knowing what they do on the web that they would sue a company who collects info on them, there are apparently others who are so unconcerned that they would actively sign up to share their entire browsing history with others through services like Dscover.me, Sitesimon.com and Voyurl.com… [Gizmodo]

As we’ve been following for a while now, there seems to be a real battle brewing on Capitol Hill between Congress and online advertisers/marketers…and the latest related development is that a Florida Congressman wants legislation that would force advertisers to disclose how they are utilizing users’ personal information, and give users the ability to stop those advertisers from using their info (just to take “Do Not Track” one step further)… [Ars Technica]

Finally, if you’re worried about Facebook’s recent decision to give developers access to users’ phone numbers (and addresses), here’s something you might be interested in – “How to Block Facebook Apps with Access to Your Phone Number”… [The Atlantic]

The big privacy news at the end of last week was Facebook rolling out a new privacy policy that – pursuant to its recent response to the FTC in which it agreed that “any privacy framework must be implemented in a way that both honors consumers’ expectations in the contexts in which they use online services and promotes the innovation that has fueled the growth of the Internet of the past two decades” – makes it more readable (in theory, anyway) for the lay person… [Mashable]

And if it isn’t, Facebook wants to know…and they want to hear it from you, the user… [All Facebook]

Elsewhere in Facebook and privacy, the social network is apparently considering whether or not it should allow developers to access its minor users’ (those under 18, just so we’re clear) cell phone numbers and addresses… [LA Times]

We’ve mentioned throughout the past couple of months the advertising industry’s disdain for the FTC’s privacy policy, and specifically the “Do Not Track” element of its proposal, but as Microsoft’s corporate VP of advertising and publisher solutions recently told a group of digital ad industry execs – [if they really want a favorable outcome for themselves on the issue of privacy and user tracking on the web] the industry ought to just start policing itself… [WSJ]

Which, coincidentally, the industry may have already started to do now that the Interactive Advertising Bureau has given its constituents six months to comply with its own privacy code of conduct… [ClickZ]

Perhaps you’ve noticed the recent change Google made across its services in the form of the new nav bar at the top of your screen. Well, this nav bar is actually (at least according to Google) aimed at helping users see how they identify themselves when they are using Google services, so they can change those settings as they see fit… [Search Engine Watch]

And while we’re mentioning Google, at the end of last week, we noted how recently, Google asked kids for their social security numbers in order to participate in its “Doodle 4 Google” contest…well, Congress has now decided to look into the matter, led by the online privacy-focused Joe Barton and Edward Markey… [National Journal]