The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its final report on protecting consumer privacy as the agency continues to call on companies to adopt best privacy practices and give American consumers greater control over the collection and use of their personal data. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said many companies have already adopted the agency's final recommendations and is confident consumers will have an easy to use and effective Do Not Track option by the end of the year.

Google's privacy policies have come under fire in the past, but when it comes to the 'do-not-track' feature mentioned in the Obama administration's online "Consumer Bill of Rights," the Sultan of search won't be pushing anyone's buttons. Instead, it will givers the opportunity to press a button, embedded in Chrome, to initiate the DNT feature and tell websites to back off.

Do you use Twitter's "Find Friends" feature on your Android smartphone or iPhone device? If so, you may have been agreeing to more than you bargained for. Privacy advocates are up in arms after it was discovered that Twitter has been harvesting address books from smartphones that use this feature, in many cases without proper disclosure or the user's explicit permission.

Google wants to know what sites you visit, when you visit them, and what you do when you're there. It wants to spy on your Web surfing behavior, to know details that perhaps even your significant other doesn't know, and it's willing to pay you if you'll agree to let it relentlessly follow you around the Web. If you do, you'll receive up to $25 in cold, hard... gift certificates.