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The Federal Trade Commission just cleared Google's acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob. According to the FTC, the acquisition raised "serious antitrust issues," but these were ultimately overshadowed by Apple's move to start its own mobile advertising network and the fact that Google has numerous other competitors in the mobile advertising space. The FTC voted 5-0 to close its investigation of Google's acquisition.

Privacy is a touchy subject. In almost all cases, the more fame and fortune a person or company acquires, the more scrutiny they receive. And, out comes the trolls, worms and paparazzi.

Twitter and Facebook are the beacon examples of this issue. People like being famous, and we want followers! And the evidence shows, the more personal information we put out there, the more people consume it. Today, on International Data Privacy Day, we explore the social and technical norms and issues of privacy in the network and the cloud.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the privacy and security implications of cloud computing.

That could be quite an inquiry as the debate is still open about how to actually define cloud computing in the first place.

The new FTC guidelines for disclosure by bloggers have stirred up some anger among bloggers accustomed to getting free stuff and blogging about it without the heavy hand of governmental Big Brother yadda yadda - oh, you can finish the sentence yourself.

According to new guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), bloggers who fail to disclose that they have received freebies when they write about a product can now be fined up to $11,000 per post. The new FTC Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising argues that any post of a blogger who receives "cash or in-kind payment to review a product" should be considered an endorsement. Because these posts are now officially considered endorsements, bloggers who receive freebies must now disclose this fact on their site.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering to monitor blogs for undisclosed sponsored blog posts. According to the FTC, bloggers who don't disclose that they received freebies once these new rules go into effect could become the target on an FTC investigation. These new guidelines (PDF), possibly with modifications, will most likely go into effect later this summer, and would mark the first time that the FTC tries to patrol the blogosphere.