Have you read iTunes, Microsoft Windows 8 or Google service Terms and Conditions lately? Take time to read one. U.S. and overseas regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of how Google and others in the industry supporting mobile apps, stores, and advertising networks handle consumers' private information. Regulators want more transparency into what information is collected by apps and how the data gets shared. Consumers have mixed feelings about companies collecting data. While some want to hold their intellectual property close in hand, others believe it's part of technology advancements that cannot be stopped. 

An eMarketer report shows how social signals fuel real-time marketing. The report shows how companies like Cisco, Dell, Discovery Communications, H&R Block, McDonald's, SAP, Sprint Nextel and other businesses share how they go beyond traditional social marketing to do more with social analytics. They create content that drives more response and engagement, make rapid changes to marketing plans, and develop initiatives around topics and events driven by changes trending in social media, according to the report.

Pratik Dholakiya tells us how to broaden link-building techniques and turn them into brand-building to improve results. The steps explain how to put the focus on brand recognition, and suggest that marketers stop relying on press releases, comments and forum marketing to build links because they will become, well, worthless. Dholakiya provides 10 suggestions -- both dos and don't's.

Cyrus Shepard explains how to future-proof links from penalties while delivering better returns. Rather than what link strategies work and don't work. think about what Google will reward in the future to get the most from search marketing investments. Look for things that people use in "unnatural ways" to determine the way Google will change how content ranks in results.

Bing and Fox News partnered to bring a social touch to the U.S. State of the Union address Tuesday. Bing Pulse, the platform, provided a sense of the sentiment related to critical issues that the President discussed. The results split gender and political affiliation. Bing analyzed keywords in social media posts, among other things, to determine the thinking on policy issues.

Google will gain 20% of clicks from paid-search ads in the U.S. this year from tablets, according to a report from Marin Software. The report explains that tablet ad conversion rates rose 31% in 2012 from 2011, compared with 9% and 7% for smartphones and desktop computers, respectively.

Andrew Lolk serves up tips for optimizing a paid-search campaigns account during the first month. If by day eight the ads don't get the clicks expected, check the ad positions. Marketers with the budget to expand should rank in the top three. Lolk provides tips on reviewing ads for losers, deleting low search volume keywords, pausing keywords with low click-through rates, and picking negative keywords to add.

xAd and Telmetrics will partner to release the second U.S. Mobile Path-to-Purchase research study conducted by Nielsen. The study will cover category-specific results for Retail, Gas/Convenience, Insurance and Banking/Finance. The companies also will expland the study into the U.K. market aimed at Travel, Restaurants and Automotive categories -- the same categories covered in last year's U.S. study.

An annual Cisco Systems security report suggests that consumers are more likely to fall victim to cyber crime through search engines, online ads, and social networks compared with pornographic or gambling sites. The report suggests 91% of monitored hits to Web pages were split between search engines at 36%, online video sites at 22%, advertising networks at 13%, and social sites at 20%.

Flurry Analytics added User Acquisition Analytics to its analyses, giving marketers the ability to measure and compare acquisitions for campaigns and channels. User Acquisition Analytics measures any campaign media supporting custom URLs, such as ad networks, email campaigns, mobile-Web sites and even QR codes. The post takes us through how to use the platform.