Video privacy bill passes Senate: The Senate has passed a Netflix-backed update to a bill that will allow users to share the names of videos they watch on the video service to social networks such as Facebook. The bill updates the Video Privacy Protection Act, which made it illegal for video rental businesses to disclose the titles they rent to customers.

The law was originally passed in 1998, when a newspaper published the rental records of then-Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

Google designing ‘X’ phone, report says: Google is reportedly planning to build a high-end smartphone to rival Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy SIII, through its Motorola Mobility unit, according to The Wall Street Journal. Google has not had good luck with hardware in the past, with its branded tablets and smartphones getting good reviews but making little splash in the market.

After Google announced plans to acquire Motorola last year, the company was quick to say that it would maintain strong partnerships with Android phone makers including Samsung and HTC.

Apple appeals rejected Samsung ban: Apple has appealed U.S. District Court judge Lucy Koh’s decision to reject a ban on 26 Samsung products earlier this week.

Bloomberg reported that Apple is seeking a review of the ruling from a federal appeals court in Washington.

The U.S. Trademark and Patent Office recently said that it would overturn an Apple patent at issue in a trial between Apple and Samsung this summer. A jury ruled in August that Samsung had to pay Apple over $1 billion in damages for violating several Apple patents.

Instagram reverses ad terms decision: Thursday night, Instagram said that it will revert a section of its terms of service back to its original wording after users soundly rejected proposed changes to the policy.

In a company blog post, chief executive Kevin Systrom said that the company made the changes in response to user feedback and that the company will explain ad strategies and plans to customers in the future.

Facebook rolls out new privacy layout: Facebook users in the United States and across the globe are starting to see changes the company made to the way it shows privacy settings. The company began rolling out the changes late Thursday night.

The social network detailed the changes last week in a company blog post. Users will now see a “privacy shortcut” menu at the top of every Facebook page that give answers to three basic questions: who can see users’ posts, who can contact a specific user and information on how to block individual users on the site.

Apple patent rejected: The U.S. Patent and Trademark office said Wednesday that it has rejected the “pinch-to-zoom” patent. The technology covered by that patent was one of those at issue in the summer trial between Apple and Samsung. Samsung was ordered to pay Apple more than $1 billion in damages for violating that patent and five others.

The Washington Post reported that Apple is expected to ask the office to reconsider that decision.

Facebook halts ad tests: Facebook confirmed that it is halting tests of a new ad service on its network, opting instead to focus on promotions that appear in users’ news feeds.

“We are pausing our mobile ads test off of Facebook,” the company said in a statement. “While the results we have seen and the feedback from partners has been positive, our focus is on scaling ads in mobile news feed before ads off of Facebook. We have learned a lot from this test that will be useful in the future.”

The service, which Facebook announced several months ago, was expected to rival ad exchanges such as Google’s AdSense.

Video game group speaks out: The industry group that represents game publishers broke its silence Wednesday in response to criticism of violent games in the aftermath of a school shooting in Connecticut. Lawmakers have criticized the industry in the wake of the attacks, and on Wednesday, Sen. Jay Rockefller (D-W.Va.) introduced a bill that called for research into links between violent games and violent behavior.

“The Entertainment Software Association, and the entire industry it represents, mourns the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the families who lost loved ones, and to the entire community of Newtown,” the statement said. “The search for meaningful solutions must consider the broad range of actual factors that may have contributed to this tragedy. Any such study needs to include the years of extensive research that has shown no connection between entertainment and real-life violence.”

App developers pan FTC rules: App developers have spoken out against the rules regarding children’s privacy proposed by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday, saying that they may place too great a burden on independent developers.

TechFreedom, among others, criticized the decision in statements following the rule announcement.

“Crippling the functionality of kids' sites in this way will drive more kids to lie about their age to use more functional general-audience sites. This will harm kids' media and frustrate COPPA’s core goal: parental empowerment,” said TechFreedom President Berin Szoka in a statement.

Criticism of the video game industry and violent video games has resurfaced since last week’s shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Several politicians, including John Hickenlooper (D), the governor of Colorado , and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), have mentioned a link between violent games and aggression. On Wednesday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) introduced a bill that calls for the National Academy of Sciences to examine the effect of violent video games as compared to other mediums.

“Major corporations, including the video game industry, make billions on marketing and selling violent content to children,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “They have a responsibility to protect our children. If they do not, you can count on the Congress to take a more aggressive role.”

In a statement late Wednesday, the Entertainment Software Association extended its “prayers and condolences” to the community of Newtown, but asked that any study take into account research that shows little link between video game violence and real-life violence.

“The Entertainment Software Association, and the entire industry it represents, mourns the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the families who lost loved ones, and to the entire community of Newtown,” the statement said. “The search for meaningful solutions must consider the broad range of actual factors that may have contributed to this tragedy. Any such study needs to include the years of extensive research that has shown no connection between entertainment and real-life violence.”

There have been some studies that show violent video games have some connection to higher levels of aggression, but not to real-life violent behavior. Last year, the Supreme Court used that argument as it struck down a California law that made it a crime to sell violent games to minors — adding that games were “as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature.”

Rockefeller said in his statement that recent court decisions show some people “do not get it.” He also called on the Federal Trade Commission to expand its work in setting ratings, and for the Federal Communications Commission to examine the impact of violent programming on children.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that there have been multiple, as-yet-unconfirmed reports that Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, who killed his mother and 26 students and teachers on Friday morning, played a range of violent and non-violent games. Law enforcement officials, the report said, have not cited his reported interest in games as a possible motive for the attack.

The report also said that some in the gaming community have called for a digital “Day of Cease-Fire for Online Shooters” set for one week after the massacre out of respect for the dead.

FTC releases new guidelines on kids privacy: The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday issued an update to online child privacy laws that would require application makers to notify parents to collect a child’s photographs, videos and geo-location information, The Washington Post reported.

Companies also must get parental consent before using tracking tools such as cookies that peek into children’s IP addresses and device identification numbers.

Privacy advocates have long-called for these types of rules, which they say will help insulate the Web’s youngest users against more persistent tracking from developers and advertisers. But companies such as Disney and Facebook, the report said, have argued strict rules can curb innovation and that compliance puts a financial burden on individual developers.

Rockefeller introduces video game violence bill: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) introduced a bill Wednesday that may reignite the debate over the effect that violent video games have on young people.

The bill would direct the National Academy of the Sciences to examine the effect that violent video games have on children and compare these effects against other violent media. The NAS must submit the report within 18 months to Congress, the FTC and the Federal Communications Commission.

In a statement, Rockefeller seemed to criticize a recent Supreme Court decision knocking down a California law that banned the sale of violent video games to minors.

“Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do not get it,” Rockefeller said. “They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents, pediatricians, and psychologists know better.”

Justice settles with Penguin over e-books case: The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has settled with Penguin Books, one of the defendants in an e-books pricing case the implicated Apple and other publishers in a price-fixing scheme.

The proposed settlement was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Justice Department has already settled with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster over the allegations. The department is continuing litigation against Apple and Macmillan, who dispute the charges.

Instagram uproar continues: The uproar over Instagram’s changes to its privacy policy continued Wednesday, as users waited for the company to post new revisions to its terms of use. On Monday, Instagram posted new rules set to go into effect on Jan. 16, that appeared to give the service the right to include user photos and other content in advertisements without getting consent.

Instagram said subsequently that it never planned to put user photos in advertisements, but included the language to allow advertisers to do things such as show users which of their friends are also following a particular brand.

Nickelodeon to resubmit SpongeBob app: Nickelodeon said that it will resubmit an app, SpongeBob Diner Dash, to Apple’s App Store following a privacy group’s complaint to the FTC. On Monday, the Center for Digital Democracy said that it had found evidence that the app collected personal information from children in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

In a statement, the company said that it could “confirm that no names, e-mail addresses or other personally identifiable information were collected, and, therefore, we believe that no violation of COPPA occurred.”Information such as names are stored locally to the device, the company said.

Nickelodeon did say the app had an “optional email prompt,” but was not operational within the program.

Sprint, Clearwire: Sprint and Clearwire announced a new deal Monday which would give the nation’s third-largest carrier full ownership stake in Clearwire. The move would help Sprint build out its high-speed 4G LTE network.

The deal still requires regulatory approval and is contingent on the completion of Japanese carrier SoftBank’s plans to buy a 70 percent share of Sprint.

Google, FTC nearing deal: Google and the Federal Trade Commission are said to be nearing a deal that would end a 20-month investigation into the company's practices.

According to a report from The Washington Post, it appears that Google would agree to limit its ability to take small pieces of content from other Web sites and be more open to allowing marketers to move ads to other services. The deal would not, however, address accusations that Google has acted in an anticompetitive manner when it comes to search.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: The New York Times reported Monday that Instagram was in talks with Twitter about an acquisition just weeks before it announced it was being acquired by Facebook.

The report calls comments made by Instagram chief executive and co-founder Kevin Systrom, who has said under oath that the photo-sharing company had not received any formal acquisition offers from company other than Facebook while negotiating the acquisition deal that ultimately went through three months ago.

Unnamed people “close to Twitter and Facebook” contradict those claims, the report said, and say that the Instagram and Twitter had verbally agreed on a $525 million deal for Instagram in cash and Twitter shares.

German regulators look at Facebook naming: German data protection officials have issued an order against Facebook over its policy of requiring users to register for the site using their real names.

According to a release from the data protection office in Germany, the office alleges that Facebook is violating German data protection laws with its policy. Facebook, in the release, said that its policies comply with data protection laws in Ireland, where its European offices are based, and that those policies are in full compliance with European law.

Twitter testing archived data: Twitter is giving a small number of users the opportunity to download their entire Twitter archive, the company confirmed Monday. The news, first reported by the Next Web,  follows up on an announcement that Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo made to the Online News Association that he would push the company’s engineers to give users the option to download information from their accounts.

Users have long asked for Twitter to offer more data portability, and the company is providing data in a number of formats.

Privacy group files complaint against Nickelodeon: The Center for Digital Democracy filed a complaint against Nickelodeon on Monday over the company’s practices in a SpongeBob SquarePants game. The complaint alleges that the application asks children for personal information in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and does not adequately inform users about how it collects or uses personal information.

The FTC is expected to update its rules governing children’s privacy in the near future.

Nielsen, Twitter join forces: Nielsen and Twitter announced Monday that they have partnered on an initiative that puts the social network into a new light — as a ratings system. Twitter has long been used as an informal gauge of how popular or engaging a particular program is, but now Nielsen will use those ratings to complement its own data on what U.S. families are watching.

“Our users love the shared experience of watching television while engaging with other viewers and show talent. Twitter has become the world's digital water cooler, where conversations about TV happen in real time,” said Chloe Sladden, Twitter’s vice president of media in a statement.