Perhaps iOS 6’s Mapplegate was simply meant to be a great distraction from the fact that Apple is now covertly tracking users through IFA (or IDFA) tracking technology with the iOS 6 update. While Apple had disabled the tracking of iPhone users by advertisers by disallowing app developers from using the data from Apple devices through the unique serial number permanently assigned to each device, it seems that iOS 6 has brought tracking back.

Well, Facebook has finally done it, they’ve found a way to allow unscrupulous marketers to spam your Facebook account. Facebook will allow advertisers to target users based on personal information such as phone numbers, user IDs, and email addresses. In a confirmation to PCMag.com, Facebook relayed their new marketing program which will begin next week, targeting ads to their “existing customers.”

If Microsoft wanted to play it safe when designing their new logo, they pulled it off flawlessly. While a few are calling the new logo “great,” and a few are calling it “awful,” it seems the overwhelming response is “meh.”

With the announcement that they are introducing, “expecting a baby,” as a life event option for parents-to-be, Facebook is once again proving that they have mastered the art of capitalizing on their users’ lives. And in true Facebook fashion, they claim that, no, this is just another thoughtful tool for excited expectant parents to share their overwhelming joy with their loved ones…but that perhaps they will consider using it for advertising at a later date.

In a move that is not unheard of, but completely reprehensible, defeated Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is selling off his campaign’s donor and activist email list as the campaign attempts to crawl out of their $4 million hole of debt. And perhaps “slithering” is a better word as Newt is slapping his donors right in the face by not just selling their email addresses to other political campaigns, but to any unscrupulous company with equally slippery ethics.

Slashdot, that ubertech, ubergeek site that we all know and love, has inserted “Ads by Google” Adsense ads into the Slash dot RSS feed for a while. Nothing wrong with that. But lately some of the ads have been really racy. Take, for example, this ad (see screen capture below) for the online dating site Anastasia Dates, at AnastasiaDates.com

Forget the two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun. What’s hot these days at McDonald’s is mommy bloggers. That’s right. While multi-million dollar television advertising campaigns are certainly no thing of the past, the new marketing frontier which McDonald’s is openly mining is mommy bloggers. Mommy bloggers are just what they sound like – moms who blog. And they can mean big business, as some of these mom bloggers have a substantial following.

Remarketing is a term you are likely to start hearing more of, with the buzz about the possiblity of a Do Not Track registry. This is both because remarketing is one of the leading uses for online tracking of consumers’ movements on the Internet and across the web, and because remarketing is one of the big reasons that Internet advertisers, Internet marketers, and their lobbying organizations oppose a Do Not Track list. Remarketing, you see, is online advertising that follows you around the web or, as we call it, stalkvertising.

Gary McKinnon, the self-confessed pot-smoking, Asperger’s-diagnosed British hacker who went by the nickname “Solo”, and who hacked into several U.S. military computer systems (including at the Pentagon and NASA) and now faces extradition to the U.S. to stand trial, has none other than former hostage and Anglican envoy Terry Waite pulling for him.

You’ve probably heard of “Black Friday”, which is the day after Thanksgiving, when all of the shops have their sales, and it’s chaos and bedlam and pandemonium, oh my! But that ain’t nothing compared to Black Monday – or Cyber Monday – when all of the online shoppers take to the net.

Ever wonder what percentage of the Post Office’s revenue comes from Amazon or eBay shipping? We wondered, and here is what we found out. What we discovered was fascinating, and makes one wonder just why postage rates continue to go up, up, up.

Four new rules have been issued by the Federal Trade Commission which augment and amend the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. These four new rules amending the CAN SPAM Act take effect this month (June, 2008), and affect all senders of commercial email who have an email list of any size. Here’s what the new CANSPAM Act rules are.

Now, we all know the importance of feedback. Giving feedback is what allows businesses to even better serve their customers. And we’re all familiar with feedback forms on all sorts of sites, the quintessential example being the feedback form for eBay feedback. There are all types of feedback – positive feedback, negative feedback, and even constructive feedback which may be neither. But demanded feedback? Giving and receiving feedback should be a voluntary act. Demanding that I leave feedback for a transaction with you may lead to destructive feedback, or maybe I should learn how to give scholarly constructive feedback that feels positive when it isn’t! I mean, why provide feedback at all if it’s going to be so strained? Why do you feel entitled to – indeed – how dare you demand feedback from me? [And check out how eBay is forcing sellers to leave buyers only positive eBay feedback – no more eBay negative feedback for buyers with the new eBay seller feedback rule!]

We have a colleague by the name of Jeff Walker. Jeff is one of those amazing people – a genuinely nice guy – who also happens to know how to ethically make a lot of money on the Internet. I mean, a lot of money. What is unique about Jeff, also, is that he helps others to make a lot of money on the Internet. Again, I mean, a lot of money. Now you can watch as Jeff helps a guy go from food stamps to six figures, using the Internet!

We are asked all the time “How can I make money on the Internet?” or “Where can I learn how to make money on the Internet?” Here’s how.