TechCrunch's Michael Arrington takes issue with The Wall Street Journal, which has recently published a series of investigations into Facebook and its perceived privacy violations -- the most recent of which ran Monday. "The inmates are now running the asylum," Arrington says of The Journal and the many news outlets (including this one) that picked up the paper's report. "We'll put aside the fact that no mention was made of the Wall Street Journal's sister company and Facebook competitor MySpace," writes Arrington -- which, we should mention, isn't actually putting aside the fact at all. Arrington …

It turns out Google isn't the only tech giant with a ton of cash and a shopping list. On Monday's earnings call, "When asked if he planned on spending any of Apple's $51 billion (!) in cash via a dividend or stock buyback, [Jobs] explained that he had something else in mind," notes MediaMemo. What exactly? Said Jobs on Monday's call (according to MediaMemo): "We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along that we're in [sic] unique opportunity to take advantage of because of our cash." Jobs' comments apparently merit such arresting …

The New York Times Co. has filed suit against micropayments system Kachingle for violating its trademarks. Times Co. claims that Mountain View-based Kachingle attempted to market the publisher's services to consumers based on the expectation that the NYTimes.com would start charging readers for access next year. "The NYTCo says that Kachingle approached executives of the paper in Feb. 2009 about giving the micropayments provider access to its articles and blogs," paid Content reports. "In exchange, Kachingle would give the NYTCo money it collects from consumers, who voluntarily pay for its news distribution service. But the NYT said Kachingle …

Evernote, which makes cloud-based note-taking products, has raised $20 million in a Series C round led by Sequoia Capital. The startup now claims to have about 4.7 million users worldwide, along with a strong business model. Indeed, Evernote CEO Phil Libin tells Mashable that the company still have $9.5 million in funding left over from a previous round, and that it is operating almost entirely off of premium subscriptions. "The [new] funds, then, will be applied to aggressive international expansion that will include both product rollouts in languages beyond the 14 the company already supports and physical …

On the heels of recruiting Chris Menard as CFO, online video platform Brightcove is gearing up for an IPO, reports Reuters. A source tells Reuters that Brightcove will likely file by mid-2011. Menard is the latest in a string of senior executives who have joined Brightcove this year, including President and COO David Mendels, who came over from Adobe Systems in January. Brightcove -- long rumored to be a Google acquisition target -- is presently looking for acquisitions that will help it improve its market share, differentiate its technology and recruit new talent, Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire …

Back to those nagging privacy issues, Facebook has reportedly been sending User ID's to third party app makers and ad agencies for financial gain, as Online Media Daily's Wendy Davis reported last week. "The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings," a Wall Street Journal investigation reveals. "The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure." Still, rather than calls for Zuckerberg's head, one detects a fatalistic sense …

Having firmly entrenched itself in the popular consciousness, Twitter and its co-founder Biz Stone are being featured in the latest ad for Stolichnaya Vodka, reports Fast Company. Under the tagline, "Would you have a drink with you?" the ad features not one but two Stones' at a club chatting about tweets and whether they're just a "constant stream of meaningless babble." According to Stoli, the "campaign challenges the consumer to ponder how they measure up -- Are you daring enough? Are you an original?" What Fast Company wants to know is: "Is @Stoli that desperate for Twitter …

Google isn't the only tech giant hard at work on a new social strategy. Citing sources, The Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo is about ready to debut Y Connect, which will let media publishers, Web developers and other websites integrate elements of their services with Yahoo itself. In The Journal's own words, the forthcoming feature will "mimic" Facebook's existing strategy, which is designed to drive site traffic. "Such efforts can help Internet companies track the activities of users around the Web and better tailor advertising offerings to them." Y Connect will encourage to users to register …

In the next several weeks, social buying site Groupon will announce revenue sharing partnerships with eBay, Yahoo, and CitySearch, sources tell TechCrunch. Still, despite being "one heck of a startup," TechCrunch's Michael Arrington argues that Groupon and its backers are in for one heck of a reality check. Regarding the issue of scale, the social buying site "needs a lot of sales people for each market it handles and already probably has more than 2,000 of them on payroll," notes Arrington. "But the real problem is the complete lack of a network effect to protect its business." …

The New York Times asks the question on everyone's mind: How does Google plan on getting its social grove on? Well, while details remain scarce, Google officials tell the paper that social features will be added to existing products, like search, email, maps, photos, video and ads. The company plans to "take Google's core products and add a social component, to make the core products even better," CEO Eric Schmidt says. Such explanations, however, appear to leave analysts cold. "Google's culture is very much based on the power of the algorithm, and it's very difficult to algorithm …