My, my, Google. It seems the words “Google” and “Privacy” can be found in quite a few articles across the internet as of late. Quite a few falling on the non-flattering side. Perhaps that’s why Google finally made a point of updating their main page to a never-before offered link to their privacy terms AND posting about the update on their corporate blog.

The issue was brought to the light in the first place by NY Times reporter Saul Hansell, when he asked if the company was violating California law by not posting a link to its privacy policy on its home page. The answer? Yes. That is when privacy advocates jumped in and became involved. Although in what is seeming to become an “oh so Google” move…it wasn’t done until Day 31 when the legal time frame following notice is 30 days.

I just got a notice from my cable provider, Charter Communications, that they may start to “deliver or facilitate delivery of advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest” to me. Apparently, they’re not too concerned about their customers’ rights, and are doing this as an opt-out service. It’s one thing to spy for national security reasons, it’s another thing to spy on innocent people just to deliver ads.

From their website:

Apple’s iTunes Store better watch it’s back, because here comes Napster with not just another online music service, but one that now offers a whooping 6 million DRM-free music tracks. With this number of available tracks Napster has now become the world’s largest major label MP3 catalog and the largest library of independent music worldwide. more »