Privacy expert and former Federal Trade Commission staffer Christopher Soghoian has filed a complaint with the agency alleging that Google leaks users' data by sharing search queries with third parties.

There's no question that Facebook's revised Groups feature has much to recommend it from a privacy point of view. With the new Groups, people can more easily pick and choose which of their friends will receive particular messages -- a feature that could have come in handy for people like June Talvitie-Siple, who lost her job after she complained about students in a post that was visible to everyone on Facebook. But, as has become par for the course, Facebook made a blunder by launching Groups on an opt-out basis. That is, a user can add a friend to a …

Fox News, MSNBC, National Public Radio and other news organizations have used copyright law to stifle political speech online, according to a new report by the Center for Democracy & Technology.

T-Mobile and mobile marketing company EZ Texting have reached a confidential agreement settling EZ Texting's lawsuit about blocked short codes. But questions surrounding wireless carriers' ability to block texts are far from resolved.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave Google some good news today in a lawsuit stemming from its Street View feature, which offers detailed photographs of public streets -- including the outside facades of people's houses. The Supreme Court turned down a request to take up the appeal of married couple Aaron and Christine Boring, who unsuccessfully sued Google for allegedly violating their privacy by displaying a photo of their home near Pittsburgh, Pa.

By and large, people still seem to expect that they can read something online without broadcasting that information to the Web at large. Scribd's launch of Readcast -- which broadcasts information about documents users download -- blindsided people. That's why Scribd rolled out the service on an opt-out basis but, on Monday, changed Readcast to opt-in -- apparently in response to a public complaint by Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman. But don't assume from that move that Scribd has solved its privacy problems.