InfoWorld reports that “Microsoft has proposed a tiered approach to protecting the privacy of people targeted by online advertising, saying advertisers should get permission before using sensitive, personally identifiable information to deliver ads. 

[…]  Microsoft agrees with the FTC’s decision to focus on an industry self-regulatory approach, but the company has also called for Congress to pass comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, noted Frank Torres, Microsoft’s director of consumer affairs.  ‘We’re supporting what the FTC is proposing, but we also believe that privacy is important for consumers,’ Torres said.  ‘We’re not opposed to going even further’ than the FTC self-regulatory proposal.  Microsoft’s proposals would give consumers control over how their personal data is used, Torres said.  ‘When it comes to online advertising, consumers should be in the driver’s seat,’ he said.”

In an article about Silicon Valley, the International Herald Tribune reveals that, “[f]or the first time there are signs that the economic downturn is taking its toll on the country’s cradle of technology and innovation.  Start-up companies are hiring and spending more cautiously. Early-stage investors who nurture the start-ups with money and expertise are also growing more frugal. An increasing number of these young companies have in recent weeks withdrawn plans to go public. Job growth has slowed.  The change was starkly reflected in a jarring new statistic released last week by the National Venture Capital Association. During the first three months of the year, only five companies backed by venture capital investors went public on Wall Street. That is down from 31 in the fourth quarter of last year, and is now at roughly the same level as the nadir of the dotcom bust.”

In a different article, the International Herald Tribune writes that “[a]dvertising on French public television could be phased out from 2009 to the end of 2011, a special commission set up by President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday.  Public broadcasters fear that an end to the advertisements could limit their resources, but Sarkozy has suggested taxes on ads on private television and new media like the Internet would compensate for the shortfall.  ‘We have drawn up this timetable of a phased out end, the first stage in 2009,’ said Jean-François Copé, chairman of the commission set up to study the future of French television and the governing party leader in the National Assembly.”

MSNBC today has an interesting article on “black holes” on the Internet, writing that “[a]t any given moment, messages throughout the world are lost to cyber black holes, according to new computer science research.  Ethan Katz-Bassett, a graduate student in computer science at the University of Washington, and his advisor, Arvind Krishnamurthy, designed a program to continuously search for these strange Internet gaps, when a request to visit a Web site or an outgoing e-mail gets lost along a pathway that was known to be working before. To make sure the black holes they detect are not simply due to a problem with the end user or the host server, they look for computers that can be reached from some, but not all, of the Internet, meaning the issue must be occurring en route.  […]  Now the team constantly monitors the Web for black holes and posts a map of where the problems are around the world at any given moment. They hope their data will help Internet service providers track down the route of problems experienced on their networks.”

According to the Guardian, “Google has turned to one of the technology world’s most controversial figures – once arrested and put on trial – for advice in the takeover battle between Microsoft and Yahoo.  Chief executive Eric Schmidt has reportedly called in newly formed investment group Qatalyst — headed by Silicon Valley banker Frank Quattrone. Quattrone, who has long associations with Google, is best known as the high-profile investment banker with Credit Suisse who was involved in some of the biggest stock market flotations of the 1990s internet boom — including Amazon and Netscape.  He has been dogged by controversy amid allegations that he was involved in boosting shares of companies he was advising. He was arrested in 2003 for obstruction of justice and was eventually convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. That conviction was overturned after an appeal and last year the last charges against him were dropped on condition that he does not break the law for a year.”