Internet companies are collecting an unprecedented amount of information about who consumes their content and services. And while raises privacy concerns for many users, few are willing to spend money to do anything about it. In fact, a recent Carnegie Mellon/UC-Berkeley study suggests that consumers aren't even willing to pay 25 cents to protect sensitive information. "People prefer money over data, always," said one CMU official. Nevertheless, the market is being flooded by privacy protection tools from Web giants like Ask.com and Microsoft--two of the biggest collectors of consumer data--to startups like ReputationDefender and MyPrivacy. Even Google and Yahoo …

American Blind & Wallpaper, one of the original companies to sue Google for its business practices, has dropped its case accusing Google of inciting trademark infringement through its Google AdWords program. The suit was filed in 2003 and was scheduled to go to trial in the U.S. District Court for Northern California in November. Legal analysts commonly believed that American Blind had no chance in this suit. "After almost four years of litigation, the American Blinds lawsuit ended today with a stunning victory for Google," wrote Eric Goldman, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University School of …

In-game advertising company DoubleFusion, whose technology can dynamically serve ads into video games, is rolling out a new product that allows ad-buyers to create campaigns in a similar fashion to the way they buy TV spots-i.e. over anything from new games to popular older, possibly free, titles. Ad inventory is something game developers must hard-code into their games, allowing brokers like Double Fusion to sell ad content in the locations created by developers. Double Fusion's new technology lets publishers change or add new ad locations post-development with "almost unlimited flexibility." This could lead to a movement …

NBC decided not to renew its iTunes contract with Apple, and Apple retaliated by saying it would pull NBC programming from iTunes this month--three months early, and just in time for the beginning of the crucial fall season during which NBC will introduce many new shows. The brawl was over money, and to a lesser extent, privacy: NBC wanted to up the sale price of shows like "The Office" from $1.99 per download to as much as $4.99, it also wanted more help from Apple in keeping pirated videos off its iPods. But the war probably won't make …

Ever since Google's extensive plans for the mobile wireless industry were unveiled, the media and blogosphere have been abuzz over whether big G plans to enter the phone-making market, too. A prototype for Google's new mobile phone is being built in the search giant's local research lab in Cambridge, Mass. Google is keeping mum, but one unnamed entrepreneur described the "Gphone" as "simpler" and less flashy than Apple's iPhone. Another said that Google mobile exec Rich Miner showed him "a prototype with a clear case, so you could see the innards." Google is allowing the speculation. …