Building on a new marketing strategy, Spotify on Tuesday is expected to run a one-day “takeover” ad on YouTube’s homepage. “The idea is that fans are supposed to ‘follow’ the band Phoenix for a day, via an 18-minute documentary that will roll out in pieces, in what’s supposed to mimic real time,” Peter Kafka writes in AllThingsD.Last month, meanwhile, Spotify reportedly spent more than $10 million on commercials that will debut during the new season of "The Voice." 

Fairsearch Europe -- a group of Google competitors, including Nokia and Microsoft -- has filed a formal complaint with European antitrust regulators regarding Google’s Android operating system, The New York Times reports. The complaint accuses Google of using Android “as a deceptive way to build advantages for key Google apps in 70 percent of the smartphones shipped today,” according to Thomas Vinje, the lead lawyer for Fairsearch Europe. 

Dismissing a report published last week, popular mobile messaging app WhatsApp said it is not in acquisition talks with Google. At least, that’s what Neeraj Arora, the company’s business development head, is telling AllThingsD. Citing a single source, Digital Trends reported on Friday that WhatsApp was considering a $1 billion sale to Google. 

For your average online news reader, it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate between editorial and advertising. Indeed, “the strategy of having advertisers sponsor or create content that looks like traditional editorial content has become increasingly common as publishers try to create more sources of revenue,” The New York Times reports. “Advertisers and publishers have many names for this new form of marketing -- including branded content, sponsored content and native advertising.” 

With the help of technology partner R66T, a cable operator named CMA Communications is reportedly injecting extra banner ads into users’ traffic streams. As Ars Technica reports, a computer science PhD student recently discovered that CMA and R66T were augmenting the HTML files of unsuspecting Web pages with their own code. Even worse, “the R66T code didn't just add banner ads to sites that had none; it even overwrote its own ads onto high profile sites like the Huffington Post, which had plenty of ads of their own.”  

Contrary to government reports, the largest U.S. companies to experience cyber attacks are reporting few if any financial losses. “The 27 largest U.S. companies reporting cyber attacks [including MetLife Inc., Coca-Cola Co., and Honeywell International Inc.] say they sustained no major financial losses, exposing a disconnect with federal officials who say billions of dollars in corporate secrets are being stolen,” Bloomberg reports. 

The New York Times’ Jenna Wortham is a “Game of Thrones” fan, but she doesn’t subscriber to HBO, or its online platform, HBO Go. Rather, she uses the subscriber code “of a guy in New Jersey that [she] had once met in a Mexican restaurant.” What’s more, Wortham suggests that her behavior -- sharing password information to streaming sites and services -- is becoming increasingly common.  

High Fidelity has raised $2.4 million of a $3.4 million round, TechCrunch reports, citing a new SEC filing. What is High Fidelity? Other than the fact that it’s the brainchild of Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, no one knows. “There aren’t too many details of what High Fidelity does, but according to the site, the company is working on developing ‘big ideas.’” 

Facebook’s latest product launch has inspired an earnest rant from Om Malik regarding the social network’s privacy shortcomings. “Facebook Home should put privacy advocates on alert, for this application erodes any idea of privacy,” Malik writes of the just-released mobile app. “If you install this, then it is very likely that Facebook is going to be able to track your every move, and every little action.” Meanwhile, “Facebook’s history as a repeat offender on privacy … means that [users] need to be even more vigilant.”  

The Chernin Group and Comcast are reportedly ready to invest $30 million in Fullscreen -- a startup that helps video producers manage their presence on YouTube. “I’m told the deal hasn’t closed yet, but is supposed to soon,” AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka writes. “The round follows other recent Big/Old Media bets on YouTube startups, including Time Warner’s investment in Maker Studios and Bertelsmann’s investment in fashion network StyleHaul.”