Here’s an interesting prospect – DirecTV is planning on beginning to offer advertising content to subscribers based on “interests, lifestyle, and demographics” – basically contextual/behavioral factors – which obviously carries with it a natural concern for privacy [Fast Company]

Google hasn’t made a lot of friends internationally with its Street View wi-fi personal information collection this year, and one of its most staunch opponents was Germany. One “Google worshipper” chides the country for its strict approach to privacy, in the context of Street View… [Slate]

Speaking of our European friends, the EU Justice Commissioner is none too pleased with us for not yet putting someone in place to spearhead negotiating a data protection agreement with the EU [EUobserver]

Yesterday we mentioned a recent Wall Street Journal report implicating a number of the most popular iPhone/Android apps that share your data with 3rd parties. Here’s why concerns over this practice might be “overblown”… [MacWorld via Network World]

And in that same vein – the Mobile Marketing Association has taken initiative in planning rules around privacy in mobile apps and marketing [WSJ]

We mentioned a Firefox add-on recently that not only blocks advertisements for users, but also ensures that such ads don’t “track” their movement online. Well, Firefox creators, Mozilla, are apparently planning a “do not track” feature for the browser themselves [WSJ]

Regardless, at some point after the tomorrow’s “Do Not Track” hearing, we may not even need a Firefox add-on to opt-out of online ad tracking… [MediaWeek]

And now that the EU is publicly discussing what it had been previously reported as pondering – the “right to be forgotten” online – the same may be able to be said for our European friends at some point in the relatively near future [WSJ]

And speaking of “online tracking,” interesting to know that by integrating a Facebook “Like” button into content, site owners are allowing Facebook to track users whether they are Facebook members or not [ThinQ]

And while we’re talking about Facebook and privacy – we know Facebook has been the subject of several lawsuits for its privacy controls, but typically those are based on people asserting that they are not strong enough. In this lawsuit, someone is actually suing Facebook for HAVING privacy controls. Of course, it’s a patent infringement suit, but if I told you that first, the last part of that last sentence probably wouldn’t have been as appropriate… [TechCrunch]

Last link involving Facebook in any way, I promise (for today, anyway) – why the anti-Facebook, “Diaspora”  won’t be anything like Facebook and probably won’t even move the needle much in terms of alternative networks [CNN]

And finally, consumer privacy lessons from the latest Wikileaks fiasco (which you can read more about, here)… [Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society]

Yesterday, a draft summary of the Commerce Department‘s broad recommendations on “internet privacy oversight” was leaked and posted by an industry publication. Among them is a stronger rulemaking and enforcement role for the FTC [Washington Post]

Somewhat unofficial research conducted by security/privacy vendor TRUSTe revealed that over half of users clicked on an icon placed on Publisher’s Clearinghouse’s website that promised to explain more about how ads were presented to them on the site, and offering them the chance to opt out, indicating that such icons could be a successful tool for the ad industry, which has had trouble “policing” itself [NY Times]

While no one has really questioned email providers like Google who “scan users emails” to provide relevant in-email ads, the EU just voted to approve a report condemning the practice [paidcontent.org]

Last week, we mentioned that there was some concern that Microsoft‘s Kinect could present some privacy problems because of its built-in camera. Well, a Microsoft exec remarked late last week that the company might provide advertisers data about users so it can cater the ads users see to them personally…similar to what Google and other email providers do with email, as mentioned above [Engadget]

And finally, while some think a “right to be forgotten” may not be a realistic expectation for users in the US, privacy advocates are at least pushing for a “do not track” universal opt-out of online ad tracking registry [San Jose Mercury News]

Not like it should be all that surprising, but ironically, the Wall Street Journal‘s cautionary stories on tracking cookies actually employ such cookies themselves… [PC World]

And just in case it wasn’t clear on Friday, several levels of government are now involved in trying to sort out such user-tracking online, including the FTC, the Commerce Department and a newly-created “privacy watchdog” [ABC News]

If you’re REALLY concerned about your Facebook privacy, here’s an interesting way to safeguard it…deactivate your Facebook account every time you’re ready to sign out, and then re-activate it the next time you log in [CNN]

Speaking of Facebook and privacy, Facebook iPhone app users can now access and change their privacy settings from the app, although clicking on privacy settings actually just takes you to the mobile web page where you can access them [Mashable]

I haven’t been able to get far in this article since it’s hidden behind the WSJ’s paywall, but recently the EU proposed the users’ “right to be forgotten” and have government regulate what data companies that collect personal user information can store…this story seems to posit not to hold your breath waiting for government to actually protect you on the web [WSJ]

And finally, remember, friends – there’s a lot of talk about privacy in ad tracking and on social networks, but e-mail has its issues as well…once you fire off that message, it’s privacy is out of your hands [Boston.com]

So, in an effort to educate/warn other Starbucks internet browsers about Firesheep’s potential to allow others access to users’ personal information, one NYC programmer actually used the Firefox add-on to gather other users’ Facebook login info, which he then used to login to Facebook and send a warning message to those users own Facebook accounts, from their Facebook accounts…did you get all that? [Gizmodo]

The future of online privacy reform may be a little less certain here in the US, given the results of Tuesday’s elections, but in the EU, they’re full steam ahead – pushing for EU citizens’ “right to be forgotten” (IE – regulating how much/what info companies can collect on individual users) [MSNBC and NY Times]

Microsoft‘s latest gaming innovation – Kinect – has a built in camera and microphone…so, is there a potential for Microsoft to “spy” on gamers? I think that’s probably a little reactionary, but nevertheless, there is certainly potential for abuse [AOL]

And finally, you may have caught this already, but Facebook’s response to Congress on its latest privacy “breach” was basically that the reports which prompted Congress to question them were “false” and misunderstood…which actually may be a fair defense… [CNET]

Well, we certainly can’t have a Facebook privacy “breach” without the requisite lawsuits to go along – suits have been filed against both Facebook and Zynga (makers of the amazingly popular Facebook game, Farmville) related to Facebook transferring user information to other sites… [WSJ]

Speaking of Facebook and privacy, if you are worried about Facebook overtly or inadvertently sharing your info with 3rd parties, perhaps Facebook DISconnect is for you… [TechCrunch]

Here’s a good point – the link between a lot of privacy problems recently = the actions of 3rd parties who use the affected platforms… [PC World]

We’ve seen a number of countries claim Google broke their laws with its Street View wi-fi data collection disaster. This week already, a Spanish agency has sued Google over it. Now, Canada becomes the latest country to join those same ranks… [CNET]

The EU is apparently considering “criminal sanctions” and/or fines for data privacy violations by both individuals AND businesses/organizations [Bloomberg]

And finally, why journalists better hope the notion of privacy really is dead on the web…or perhaps more accurately, why they better hope HTML5 and future technologies allow for more precise user behavior tracking [NY Times]

Keep an eye out today for Canada‘s Privacy Commissioner, who will announce whether Facebook has given users enough control to remove itself from violating Canadian data privacy and personal information protection laws [National Post]

For those of you wondering just how much data Google “inadvertently” collected through its Street View efforts – apparently it was somewhere around 600 GIGAbytes…for an idea of just how much that is, you should definitely visit this link [Fast Company]

And that’s why the Czech Republic officially said Google is not allowed to expand Street View in the country [AP]

As for the EU as a whole, it apparently wants to limit airline passenger data exchanges with the US, Canada and Australia to only “terror and criminal probes” [AFP]