Denmark and Finland jointly announced they were joining Sweden, which had granted Palestine embassy status. The formal announcement was Monday, at a Scandinavian ministerial conference.

Google apparently is ending an egregious privacy breach involving people who buy apps from its Google Play store using Google Wallet to pay. Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission with a copy to California Attorney General Kamala Harris about what Google was doing. The complaint alleged that the Internet giant was violating its privacy policies and its “Buzz” consent agreement with the FTC.

Google, the company that makes its money by assembling digital dossiers about its users and selling them to advertisers for the highest bid, reported earnings Thursday. Revenue increased 31 percent to $13.97 billion and net income in the first quarter rose 16 percent to $3.35 billion, or $9.94 a share.

Details of Google’s proposed settlement with the European Union to avoid antitrust charges have been leaking out of Brussels over the weekend. And while EU competition authorities appear to have accomplished more that the gentle tap on the wrist meted out by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the deal as so far revealed doesn’t do enough to end Google’s anti-competitive practices.

Serial privacy violator Google may face fines in the millions of dollars in Europe as six countries Tuesday opened formal investigations into how Google combined its privacy and data policies last year without bothering to seek users’ consent.

The actions by France, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain came as Google refused to make changes in privacy policies requested by a group of European data protection authorities.

Google’s privacy chief, Alma Whitten, is stepping down the Internet giant confirmed Monday. Since word of her departure came out on April Fools’ Day many folks probably thought this was part of the company’s annual elaborate pranks like its “announcement” of a new service called “Google Nose.”

I mean how many of you actually thought Google even had a privacy chief?

Google honored Cesar Chavez today instead of Zombie Jesus.

Consumer Watchdog has filed a second complaint asking that the Federal Trade Commission act immediately against Google’s most recent privacy violation – sharing users’ personal information with apps developers — after new information became available in a letter from Google to Rep. Hank Johnson, (D-GA).

We’ve also expressed our concerns again to California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

When we filed our first complaint, we estimated that Google — which has effectively become a serial privacy violator — in ignoring the terms of its so-called “Buzz Consent Order” with the FTC should face penalties that reach into the billions of dollars.

Eleven Internet Companies are pressing European antitrust regulators to take strong action against Google so that the Internet giant’s smaller rivals aren’t hurt. And what happens across the pond in this case could have an impact on possible antitrust action in the United States.

Wow. Just… wow. Okay, admittedly Google’s counsel could have done a better job of explaining that internet advertising isn’t really all that different from traditional advertising, just with better and more dynamic targeting, but in all fairness he probably didn’t think he’d need to. My condensed transcript for those of you who don’t have time for videos or Louie Gohmert: