Following reports of such demands in the U.S., the Information Commissioner's Office is warning employers against asking existing or potential employees for Facebook login and password details. A spokesman for the ICO said: "The UK Data Protection Act clearly says that organisations shouldn't hold excessive information about individuals, and it's questionable why they would need that information in the first place." Doing so could put employers in breach of that act. "We would have very serious concerns if this practice was to become the norm in the UK," said a spokesperson.

The city-centric free newspaper's first consumer marketing campaign comes ahead of parts of London's Tube and Overground becoming wi-fi enabled. It centres on digital outdoor with print ads in Metro and digital ads on Spotify and hopes to get commuters into the habit of downloading the digital edition of the paper on tablets. Outdoor screen ads will encourage people to photograph the day's tablet edition and their location for a chance to win a tablet with winners' names "up in lights" across the transit stations. Print ads running in the paper will contain another chance to win a tablet with …

This week, the joint Commons and Lords committee is expected to recommend that Britain does not need a privacy law as it simultaneously upholds the granting of privacy injunctions. It will, however, recommend in its report that gagging orders should routinely be served to websites like Facebook and Twitter as well as newspapers. The cross-party panel of MPs and peers was set up to examine the balance between privacy and freedom of expression in the wake of the Ryan Giggs scandal.

Despite having the most followers, the Financial Times has only a weekly average of 670 Google+ 1 recommendations for its content while The Sun, which has no Google+ page has 827 +1s. Research also shows that, despite ranking fourth in terms of followers with 35,490, Mail Online gets the most +1 recommendations, at 10,493. Improving search rankings is the main attraction to Google+, publishers say.

Although it isn't mandatory to reveal the numbers, Australian publishers will have to start reporting digital circulation data in May, following historic changes to their audit rules. The figures will show unduplicated sales for digital as well as print editions of newspapers and magazines. The Audit Bureau of Circulations members there voted on the media sales reporting changes, which are the most significant since auditing began in 80 years.

The Entertainment Retailers Association said sales of GBP1.93 billion in 2011 made the gaming industry the country's biggest entertainment sector. Sales of DVDs and other video formats totalled GBP1.80 billion, while music pulled in GBP1.07 billion. By comparison, over the whole of last year, games accounted for 40.2% of the entertainment market, video for 37.6% and music for 22.2%. Total sales in 2011 for games, video and music fell year-on-year by 3.3% to GBP4.80 billion.

Smartphone owners are the most responsive to out-of-home advertising (OOH) with 74% interacting with it at least once, according to new research from CBS Outdoor. The Interactive Europe study of 9,000 consumers across six European countries found that 51% of people are more likely to pay attention to OOH than any other form of advertising, rising to 56% among smartphone owners. It also appears to be boosting mobile commerce, with 32% of smartphone owners going online to learn more about a brand after seeing an OOH ad and 20% purchasing a product as a result of an OOH ad.

The iPhone and Android apps will offer live news, financial data, football scores, etc., with picture galleries and video. UK subscribers will gain access to Premier League highlights from ESPN to watch goals as a match is played. Homescreens will be customisable as well. Print and iPad subscribers to the newspaper will enjoy the apps free of charge.

Existing networks like Yahoo, Fourth Screen and AdMob may be threatened by a plan to form a data-driven ad network from Everything Everywhere, O2 UK and Vodafone. It would include the key aspect of providing demographic targeting. The plan is part of a mobile wallet joint venture known as Project Oscar. Industry insiders called the proposal a "land grab" of the UK mobile ad market.

The company's Paul Smernicki on Thursday spoke at the Guardian Changing Media Summit about Universal's concern that Spotify could hurt sales of music on physical media "but we've been unable to find that evidence." Apparently, the growth of digital revenue in European countries with Spotify is about 40% as compared to 10% in countries without. Smernicki says the music industry has found its feet.