Last year, the Electronic Privacy Information Center alleged in a Federal Trade Commission complaint that the company EchoMetrix, which sells Web monitoring software to parents, was also collecting and selling data about the children being monitored. Now news comes that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo also has been investigating the Syosset-based EchoMetrix and has reached a settlement with the company. The deal calls for EchoMetrix to pay $100,000 and to refrain from analyzing or sharing any of the private messages, clickstream data or other communications that it has access to.

In November of 2008, when the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to approve the use of the white space spectrum for wireless broadband, then-chairman Kevin Martin promised that the move would pave the way for "WiFi on steroids." Broadband advocates as well as tech companies like Google and Microsoft cheered the FCC's decision to allow unlicensed devices on white spaces -- or vacant radio airwaves. They argued that freeing the white space spectrum would encourage the creation of new wireless broadband networks because radio airwaves are powerful enough to transmit across large areas. But many current users …

A decision dating back to the Bush administration that freed broadband companies from the regulations that applied to dial-up providers has led to higher-than-expected prices, according to a new report by Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

A federal judge has okayed independent filmmakers' attempts to unmask thousands of Web users who allegedly downloaded movies from peer-to-peer networks. The judge reasoned that Web users have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their data because "they already have conveyed such information to their Internet Service Providers" -- the exact opposite of a New Jersey Supreme Court decision two years ago.

Last year, researchers at UC Berkeley documented that some Web companies appeared to be circumventing users' privacy settings by using Flash cookies to recreate deleted HTTP cookies. Now, a new report by Carnegie Mellon indicates that Web sites are thwarting users' privacy choices by providing erroneous information to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Copyright enforcement company Righthaven might have signed up the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette owner, WEHCO, as a new client, but not all newspapers are eager to start suing nonprofits, bloggers and politicians for reposting material. Today, Gannett vice-president Barbara Wall indicated that she didn't expect USA Today or other papers in the chain to adopt Righthaven's approach.

Add right-wing Senate candidate Sharron Angle of Nevada to the roster of defendants sued by Righthaven for allegedly infringing copyright by re-posting pieces from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

As part of a new initiative to lobby Congress to create a do-not-track list, Consumer Watchdog has posted a video taking aim at Google for its privacy policy.

The Associated Press said this week that it will start crediting other news publishers -- including newspapers that aren't members, online publications and bloggers -- when those publications break a story first.

The Federal Communications Commission is taking the Google-Verizon neutrality proposal seriously enough to solicit comments on the most controversial aspects of the plan: whether neutrality rules should apply to wireless broadband providers and whether companies should be allowed to create fast lanes for specialized services, including telemedicine, distance learning and entertainment.