Does Google’s StreetView invade privacy and encroach upon civil liberties? There are those who say that it does, and into this group we would have to place the Pennsylvania couple, Aaron and Christine Boring, who are suing the search company for both intentional and/or grossly reckless invasion of privacy and mental distress. They seek a minimum of $25,000.

Sears, once known as “where America shops” should now be known as “where America gets spied on.” That’s because Sears has installed spyware on the computers of any of their Sears’ customers who signed up for the Sears “My SHC Community” (SHC stands for “Sears Holdings Corporation”), spying on not only what they buy, but on everything they do on the Internet.

The mega popular Facebook site has joined the ranks of social networking sites that trick you into providing your password so that they can steal your AOL , Yahoo, MSN, or other address book, and spam all of your contacts. Only this time it’s with a twist – they are actually spamming your AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) contacts in your Buddy List! The spam starts out like this: “According to his Facebook status, Friend’s Name (their username) is now “Friend’s Nickname”. Friend invites you to join Facebook and keep up with what he and your other friends are doing.” What we want to know is WHY are AOL, Yahoo, and MSN continuing to let this go on?

With very little fanfare, Google has unleashed their relatively new web history feature on their users. If you had any doubt that Google has the ability to store and track your every move you make – at least through them – let this put all doubts to rest. Here’s what’s really behind that “New! View and manage your web history” link you’re seeing on the Google page.

Is your ISP inserting their own ads into your browser, trying to cash in on your browsing experience? Now you can bust them, with this new way of testing it!

Upskirting is an issue relating to the Internet for a couple of reasons. First, because upskirting – the act of surreptitiously taking a photo up someone’s skirt – is usually done with a cell phone, part of the sport is posting the upskirt pictures you take to the Internet. Also “upskirting” is one of the most often-searched for phrase on the Internet. You might say that upskirting and the Internet go hand-in-hand.

Forget plain old mobile phone tracking. FlexiSpy is a cell phone tapping and spying software that, once slipped on to your cell phone, sends all of the data from your cell phone to the person spying on you. It also allows them to turn on your cell phone’s microphone so that they can remotely listen in on what you are doing, and on your calls! It currently works with all Nokia 60, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile phones, and, according to FlexiSpy, more phones are being added all the time.

The mother of a Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was jailed for ten years by the Chinese government after Yahoo cooperated with Chinese authorities and revealed Shi Tao’s identity and personal details to them, is suing Yahoo in U.S. Federal court.

Recently I started getting invitations to join Flixster from complete strangers. Obviously, this was spam, but why were these complete strangers sending it to me? And why were they always from AOL and Hotmail? Now people are asking – is Flixstr accessing your AOL and Hotmail contacts list and spamming them in your name?

Quite a few people have by now read about AOL’s new Skyhook “Near Me” buddys plug-in. That’s the plugin for the service which lets you know if any of your buddies are geographically near to you, and puts them in a “Near Me” buddies group. But what far fewer people realize is exactly how it works. How does it know when you are near one of your buddies? The answer may surprise – and concern – you.

A new service announced by AOL, called Skyhook, adds a new “Near Me” buddy group to your AIM buddies. This is intended to show you your nearby buddies or local buddies. Based on where you and your AIM buddies are located, those who are within a certain number of miles of you will show up in your “Near Me” buddy group.

Network neutrality, laws requiring dating sites to perform background checks and ISPs to rat out their users, laws banning anonymous posting, and cyber bullying legislation. Is it all part of a move towards a nanny Internet?

A new law, called the the “Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act”, or SAFE Act, proposed by Senator McCain and Senator Schumer, would require any ISP to report and forward to a central agency any image which came through or was hosted on their system which meets the Federal definition of child pornography. This includes drawings and cartoons of children, if they could be considered inappropriate, even if the children don’t actually exist in real life, and ISPs that fail to report such images would themselves be subject to stiff penalties.

A website exposing and selling personal information and personal items belonging to Paris Hilton, owned by Bardia Persa, has been ordered by a Federal judge to cease and desist from selling the items pending a hearing. The items were purchased by Bardia Persa for $10 million from Nabil and Nabila Haniss, who in turn had purchased them for a little over two thousand dollars. I’m betting that they purchased the items at a storage locker auction; and storage locker auctions are perfectly legal.

A company called Accenture has developed a system for a “virtual family dinner”. The concept is simple enough. With people scattered across the United States, and around the globe, it’s increasingly rare that a family sits down to dinner together around a table. So, goes Accenture’s corpthink, let’s have their loved ones sit down with them – wherever they may be. The virtual family meal system is aimed primarily at the elderly, whom are often shut in, or may have special dietary needs which could be monitored by family members on the grid of the system.