Good luck, guys. Two Michigan residents are filing a class-action suit against Google over the sudden location-tracking brouhaha that’s been going down in the past week with first iOS, and now Android. According to them, Google’s location tracking of its HTC Inspire 4G’s is to a level that would normally require a warrant – and as such are demanding that the tracking immediately cease… and $50 million in damages for their trouble. Before you sympathetically take the plaintiff’s side, though, consider that while Google has had its share of privacy fiascoes, Android’s location tracking functionality…

Facebook. If you have an internet connection and a pulse there’s a good chance that you have an account. If you have an account, there’s a good chance that you haven’t made adjustments to your settings to protect your privacy, enhance your experience, or stay as secure as you want to be. It’s a minefield. Facebook has been under fire in the past for having a complicated interface when it comes to personal settings. Despite recent changes they’ve made to the UI, it’s still not very easy without a roadmap. Thanks to our friends at ZoneAlarm, we have just the ticket for you. This graphic gives you everything…

The news is jam-packed with stories about online privacy, “do not track,” and Internet security issues. With proposals for a National Internet ID and do-not-track legislation on the table, it’s clear that 2011 will be a year when much will boil over in the privacy arena. This infographic design by Sitejabber takes a look at ways that companies (and less-than-honorable organization of non-business intent) are able to track your activities and use it to target you for various reasons. Opponents to do-not-track technology claim that the information they receive from tracking allows them to…

You may want to check out Lovely-Faces. Yeah it’s a dating site – and we’re not saying you’re desperate. The fact of the matter is, you may already have a profile here. In fact, it’s only day one, and there are already 250, 000 members. Now that’s growth. Media artist Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovic, editor in chief of Neural magazine designed the site not as a sly attempt to earn money, but as art, they say. Click the link to hear them explain it far better and with more convolution than this writer ever could. They’ve gathered their information by gleaning what they can from public profiles, and with…

Starting very soon, you won’t be able to import all of your Gmail contacts in one shot into your Facebook account. Looks like Google is a little miffed at Facebook for not making tools available to let the information flow both ways; Google wants the ability to import Facebook friends and use other Facebook data as it wants to, like Facebook can now use Google’s data. Facebook will not be the only company to get the axe from the mighty Google; any company that does not let information flow both ways will be denied access to account information. “We have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect…

Another day, another shipment of new Facebook features. But today is unlike any other day. Today, said features even dare make sense. Assuming you’re an avid status updater, you’re likely quick to gripe about your limited ability to control who sees what – perhaps you don’t want coworkers knowing how high you are. But I’m not here to judge. But lucky for you: this is a think of the past! Raps Zuckerberg in a fashion most gangsta: “We’ve long heard that people would find Facebook more useful if it were easier to connect with smaller groups of their friends instead of always sharing with everyone they…

Facebook is, as we speak, rolling out a remote logout feature that will aid those who have absent-mindedly forgotten to sign out after a high-octane creeping session. The feature allows you to see a list of devices from which you’re currently signed in – your phone, your computer, the school’s computer, the library’s computer, the local display iPad, etc, and axe the session from any to all of those devices. It also logs the length of the session, and software used. Pretty zazzy. Honestly, in terms of privacy – which historically, of course, is not Facebook’s forte – this is a totally great new addition….

For years now, what web sites do with our data has become a serious problem in the online world. From confusing settings on Facebook – like their recent decision to again set strange defaults in Facebook Places – to online banking, how information about our lives is protected, distributed and use online has become a real issue. The big sticking point? Every individual site has its own rules about how it uses data. That means that not only do users have to carefully parse the user agreements for each site, they have to keep track of any ongoing changes. Think about that: that’s like you having to read…

It’s well known that Facebook and Google are in a war to see who invade their users privacy to the greatest degree. With the internet as the battleground, the battle is unsurprisingly pretty high tech, but Google just raised the stakes. They’ve just bought themselves an unmanned microdrone at a cost of around $60,000. Are they fed up of people chasing the Google Street View cars down the street? Maybe, or perhaps they’re just frustrated that the Street View car can only see through first floor windows. Either way, this seems like a pricey, if not awesomely cool way to invade users privacy and turn…

Oh, hey, that was slick, Facebook. Go to your account, guys. Right now. New tab. Check out your account options. Notice anything different? Facebook rolls stuff out slowly, so maybe you don’t. If you’re one of the lucky few, you may have noticed that Facebook has quietly added the option to delete your account, changing ‘Deactivate Account’ to ‘Deactivate or Delete Account’. Fancy that. It raises some questions, though, not the least of which is: why give us this option now? It’s not like Facebook is still facing bad press from the privacy snafu. You don’t like deleting our data, Facebook. Why give…