U.S. lawmakers should reopen an investigation into the snooping on Wi-Fi networks by Google's Street View cars because of information in a U.S. Federal Communications Commission report that suggests several people at Google knew of the spying, a privacy group said Monday.

The U.S. White House will push for online businesses to adopt new privacy codes of conduct, including consumer rights to control what information websites collect about them and a right to see what data is being collected, officials there said.

Google's alleged circumvention of do-not-track controls on Apple's Safari browser could lead to big fines from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission if the agency determines Google has violated a privacy settlement the company agreed to in March, some privacy advocates said Friday.

A U.S. consumer advocacy group has written to the European Commission asking it to block Google's deal to acquire Motorola and to launch an investigation into the Internet giant's alleged anticompetitive behavior.

As another year draws to a close, we look back on the IT-related comments that stuck with us.