New Spotify users will now require a Facebook account to join. From Get Satisfaction’s Spotify page:

Hey Guys thanks for your question, Unfortunately you will need a Facebook account to access Spotify from now on, unless you already have an account set up.

This does not stop you creating the Facebook account adding nothing to it and making it totally private as the Facebook account does not have to be actively used.

Makes me wonder if this was a condition to allow Spotify to integrate with the new Facebook features.

There’s always Rdio for those against having any association with Facebook.

It appears Facebook continues tracking users outside of its site, regardless of their login status. According to Nik Cubrilovic, Facebook leaves a cookie on your computer, even after you log out. This allows them to track where you go, so long as the external website has a Facebook “Share” or “Like” button on it.

This really should come as no surprise, considering the user is actually the product. What better way to determine what should be marketed to you than to capture as much of your web browsing history as possible.

You do have a couple of options to ensure this doesn’t happen to you:

• Don’t use Facebook
• Manually clear your cookies after logging out of Facebook

For the privacy-sensitive users, there are some third-party solutions to help you manage your cookies more intelligently. If you are a Mac user, I would recommend Cookie from SweetP Productions. This helps you manage your browser cookies, Flash cookies and databases for Safari, WebKit, Chrome, Chromium, Camino and Firefox from a single interface. If $14.99 is too much, you can give their free Safari Cookies plugin a try. I use the latter, and I couldn’t imagine browsing without it.

In addition to privacy concerns, I also wonder how this would impact users on a shared computer. I could only imagine how siblings’ Facebook accounts would start to blur from a web browsing history perspective.

Just last Wednesday I wrote about OnStar updating their Privacy Statement, allowing them to sell data it harvests from your vehicle to third-parties. I was one of many to give a public opinion on the matter, and now U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York is calling on the FTC to investigate OnStar for what he calls a blatant invasion of privacy. From the AP:

But the General Motors Corp. OnStar service says customers are thoroughly informed of the new practice. If a customer says he or she doesn’t want to have data collected after service is ended, OnStar disconnects the tracking.

OnStar did send out an announcement about changing their Privacy Statement, and I must admit that I did appreciate the simple bullet list of changes abbreviated at the top. It’s the last sentence that bothers me the most, “If a customer says he or she doesn’t want to have data collected after service is ended, OnStar disconnects the tracking.” Since when was canceling a service not all inclusive? If I am no longer paying for your service then I expect you to stop monitoring my vehicle.

FOSS Patents has published a great article on Verizon’s stance regarding Apple’s defense maneuvers filed against Android handset makers Samsung and HTC. From the article:

Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, implores the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to deny Apple’s request for a US-wide preliminary injunction against four Samsung products (the Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G and Droid Charge smartphones, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer), arguing that such a decision would run counter to the public interest as it “would hinder Verizon Wireless in developing and deploying its next generation high-speed LTE [fourth-generation] network, the job growth dependant [sic] on that network, and will undercut key public policy goals, including expansion of American’s [sic] access to broadband networks and faster communication with emergency personnel.”

I am not sure how much good Verizon’s request will do in the legal arena, but I read it as “Verizon has bet big on LTE, and without these devices we’re screwed.” Then I came across this:

However, it remains to be seen whether the judge will believe that the market-leading carrier represents the public interest, given that Verizon’s objective of commodotizing smartphone technologies is transparent and that the same California-based federal court has in its records for another case, Oracle v. Google, a document that shows Verizon and Google promised each other unspecified favors, potentially anti-competitive ones since they did not document them in writing.

I would think that Verizon prefers Android over iOS for the simple fact that they can lock down the phones, brand them with their own logo and preload them with crapware, something not possible with the iPhone. Apple’s stance from the beginning has been that they control the hardware and software, and the phone companies are just the pipes. This view is inline with how we view terrestrial phone services and broadband internet today, but something new to the mobile space, and I am sure it makes Verizon uncomfortable.

Léo Apotheker is out, and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is in. But is Meg really qualified to run HP, a company which has had a deep impact on technology for over 75 years? According to Ted Samson at InfoWorld, the answer is no. Ted hits on four reasons why he believes she will not be a great fit, but one sticks out:

Her ethics track record is, well, spotty. From her sweetheart investment deal with Goldman Sachs to her personal use of the eBay corporate jet to hiring an undocumented worker as a housekeeper and nanny, Whitman’s reputation isn’t quite polished sterling. HP’s had enough trouble in the past with leaders engaging in unsavory behavior. Why risk signing on a new CEO who has demonstrated that type of behavior already?

Since when was acting unethically a barrier to being a business leader? Although I personally disagree with unethical leadership, I don’t believe it has the negative impact it should on businesses. His three other reasons, none-the-less, make for a good read.

You can always compare her qualities with The HP Way:

• We have trust and respect for individuals
• We focus on a high level of achievement and contribution
• We conduct our business with uncompromising integrity
• We achieve our common objectives through teamwork
• We encourage flexibility and innovation

Only time will tell how she aligns with these tenets.