Just days after the London-based group Privacy International named Google one of the worst on the Web for privacy, the company said it would tweak its data retention policies by "only" holding onto records tying search queries to IP addresses for 18 months.

YouTube is ready to start testing a new "video fingerprinting" technology that theoretically identifies copyrighted clips and prevents them from appearing on the site.

The proposed Google-DoubleClick merger has drawn scrutiny from privacy advocates, but it's becoming increasingly clear that even without DoubleClick, Google poses a threat to people's privacy.

Online video users tend to watch clips fairly frequently, with the vast majority viewing Web videos at least once a month, according to a new report by the Online Publishers Association.

Search engines continue to drive users to spyware and other nuisances. That's according to McAfee's recent second annual State of Search Engine Safety.

Hearst-Argyle has cut a deal to distribute video clips on YouTube, the companies announced today. With the arrangement, news, weather, and clips from other local programs in five markets - - Boston, Manchester in New Hampshire, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore - - will be available on the video-sharing site, as well as clips of high school sports, among other material.

The feds this week arrested alleged Spam King Robert Soloway of Seattle, charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, money laundering and other crimes. But his arrest doesn't appear likely to make much of an impact on people's inboxes.