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]

Google and Facebook have been the main privacy breaching culprits over the last year or so, though others have popped up here and there. This week, apparently it’s McDonald’s turn on the hot seat, in regards to its online ad targeting practices… [The Institute]

Oh, and about privacy scrutiny, Apple was recently the target of a class action based on iPhone/iPod/iPad apps that shared personal info with 3rd parties. But it may be in for more lawsuits than just the one… [CNET]

Contrary to an AFP report you might have read last week, Mozilla says it isn’t going to offer a “Do Not Track” feature in the next version of Firefox. In fact, it doesn’t think such an option is feasible right now, and it will work with the ad industry to ultimately provide something [ClickZ]

And while we’re on the subject – do we (consumers) actually even need a “Do Not Track” option? [US News & World Report]

Either way, if you’re really concerned about ad tracking, maybe a virtual private network is for you… [Huffington Post]

Finally, what will this year hold for online privacy? According to these predictions, it sounds like the self-regulation the internet has enjoyed for about the last 15 years is on the outs, in favor of government regulation [ClickZ]

Two privacy-related add-ons that we’ve mentioned many times throughout the latter half of the year were among Firefox‘s most popular extensions of 2010 – Firesheep (the extension that allowed users to access other users social networking/other registered accounts over public wi-fi), and AdBlock Plus (the extension that allows users to block ads and opt out of 3rd party ad tracking)… [Gizmodo]

And, not 100% online privacy related, but it sounds like Google doesn’t have any specific policy on employees reading confidential internal emails in public, in plain view… [Ars Technica]

The Wall Street Journal has somewhat taken it upon itself to become the privacy watchdog of daily media and has released numerous reports on services/apps that transmit personal information to 3rd parties. Over the weekend, it unmasked some more privacy offenders – this time the makers of the apps you use and love on your iPhone/Android, with Pandora being the biggest of the violators [WSJ]

As mentioned last week, the Commerce Department just released its privacy report/proposal and the basic recommendation was adherence to an online privacy “bill of rights” of sorts. Reacting to this report/proposal, the EFF applauds the spirit, but notes that self-regulation probably won’t be enough for the online advertising industry… [EFF]

And just in case we thought that industry would just take any regulations and run with them, actually, they’re well aware of the major impact “heavy-handed” regulation could have on the effectiveness of their business [MediaWeek]

And recently, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 9 will allow users innately to opt-out of 3rd party tracking in compliance with the FTC’s “Do Not Track” recommendation. Well, they’re not the only ones, as Mozilla announced that Firefox will soon allow users to do the same… [AFP]

While many claim that it’s difficult to opt-out of ad tracking, it actually isn’t as difficult as it’s made out to be, although it can be hard to find where to do so since most advertisers and publishers don’t make the pertinent info easy to find… [paidcontent.org]

Obviously if you’ve followed this blog or Google for any more than like a month, you’re fully aware of at least one class action lawsuit filed against the search giant alleging that it collected personal information unlawfully in violation of the Wiretap Act. Well, shockingly, Google is asking a judge to dismiss the class action arguing that what it did in fact did NOT violate the Wiretap Act [MediaPost]

In a similar vein – while Connecticut’s Attorney General has been trying to force Google to hand over data collected via Street View wi-fi “sniffing,” Google doesn’t seem to feel the need to do so… [paidcontent.org]

And finally, TheNextWeb brings this year in online privacy to a close with relatively comprehensive look at where we are now and where we are headed… [TheNextWeb]

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]

Foursquare and other location-based services are probably the hottest services of 2010 as far as digital goes, but when working with clients, it requires PR (and marketing) professionals to consider privacy [PR Week]

The privacy implications of Facebook‘s recently-announced Relationship pages, which show publicly-shared information and photos that involve two particular Facebook users… [InformationWeek]

Elsewhere on the Facebook privacy front – Facebook disclosed that a 3rd party was paying for user ID information from Facebook developers, but that it had suspended developers who sold such info and presumably will continue to do so to protect users’ privacy [WSJ]

Furthermore, it mentioned that it had come up with a technical solution that would make it impossible to share user IDs with 3rd parties and that it would be working with browser vendors to further make sure user IDs don’t make it into other peoples’ hands… [AFP]

While we’re at it, this isn’t Facebook related, but Facebook’s execs could probably learn a thing or two from reading this post on how to avoid online privacy issues… [GigaOm]

Hopefully none of your were holding your breath waiting for the anti-Facebook, Diaspora’s public alpha release in October, because it’s now been moved back to Thanksgiving [TechCrunch]

For those of you worried about Firesheep – the Firefox add-on that lets users’ access other users’ social networking profiles (and any other sites/services they may be logged into at the moment) through unsecure wireless networks – you probably want to download FireShepherd [Gizmodo]

Just in case you hadn’t already noticed, the government is taking online privacy very seriously lately. So much so that the White House has created a subcommittee to advise it on the issue [Washington Post]

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that the Electronic Privacy Information Center recently graded the Obama Administration a C in consumer privacy…although it gave the administration a B in cybersecurity [CMIO]

And a somewhat long saga finally ends in North Carolina, as a judge ruled yesterday that Amazon does NOT have to turn over customer records for North Carolina customers who made purchases through Amazon.com between 2003 and 2010 [CNET]

Remember that Firefox extension we mentioned yesterday that allowed anyone to access your social networking presences through insecure wi-fi networks? Apparently it’s been downloaded 104,000 times already, in just 24 hours… [TechCrunch]

And iPhone owners – if you think putting a password on your phone will keep unauthorized users out, you might want to read this… [Wired]

Augmented Reality apps are all fun and games, but have we stopped to think about the privacy implications? Personally, I don’t think having an augmented reality app that shows you where sexual offenders live is an invasion of privacy, considering there is a public registration for those individuals, but I can see where they’re going with this… [GigaOm]

Finally, today in Eric Schmidt-isms – Google’s CEO said in a CNN interview that if people don’t want to be captured by Google Street View, they can just move. Probably not the daftest move, but maybe a little more harmless than it seems… [Search Engine Watch]

The big news today is actually Facebook‘s announcement from yesterday. Among the changes and new features announced at its event are a dashboard that will allow you to manage how apps you have connected with Facebook use your information, and the ability to download your information in a zip file [Business Insider]

In case you want the full run-down on changes/new features straight from the horse’s mouth… [Facebook Blog]

And these changes/new features have somewhat appeased one of Facebook’s vocal critics (although it has yet to fully appease them), the Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF Deeplinks Blog]

Speaking of the EFF, it – along with the Internet Society and the Center for Democracy and Technology – has released a Firefox plugin that alerts you to when a site you have visited before has changed the terms of its privacy policy…pretty slick! [Forbes]

Elsewhere, Intel, Microsoft and eBay have expressed their support for a bill that would strengthen federal privacy protection on the web [WSJ]

Recapping some of Google CEO Eric Schmidt‘s “faux pas” as the company’s spokesman, including this gem when speaking about privacy – “We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about” [Fast Company]

And finally, this week in privacy litigation – potential class action suits have been filed in Georgia against Yahoo!, Comcast and Windstream for violating federal wiretap and computer privacy laws [Law.com]

“8 Essential Privacy Extensions for Firefox” [Computerworld]

The NY Bar Association has spoken on NY lawyers’ practice of “combing” social networking sites for damaging info on opposing parties – and they say it’s totally fair game…though lawyers can’t “deceptively friend someone” with the same ultimate goal [AP]