A new service by research firm PrivacyChoice rates the privacy and tracking policies of various Facebook apps. The service, launched this weekend with ratings on over 200 Facebook productivity, sharing and game apps. The top score an app can get is a 100.

That score can be diminished by an app doing certain things to its user like failing to respect a user's deletion request, sharing data with a large amount of partners, storing consumer data for long periods of time, and more.

Cory Doctorow, who you may know best as the gentleman behind the wonderful Boing Boing web site, has a brand new column in The Guardian examining why a former defender of SOPA would suddenly decide to switch sides.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has issued a call to action concerning the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. We've talked about CISPA here, and while it's not quite as overreaching as SOPA, PIPA, or ACTA, the bill is so vague in its language that it could prove to be dangerous if interpreted the wrong way by individuals and groups that don't give two shakes about privacy, Internet freedom and free speech.

According to a SiliconValley.com report, the U.S. House of Representatives will take up a revised version of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) at the end of April. The revisions to the bill should address concerns about privacy, according to its sponsors, but details on what has been changed in the language are unknown at this time.

VantureBeat reports that antivirus firm F-Secure has released a free automated removal tool for the Flashback Trojan that has infected so many Mac OS X systems. The removal tool, available here, is in a zip file. Once you download and unzip it, follow the instructions to find the virus on your system.

Representatives from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and California's Attorney General's office will address mobile app safety for children at the Digital Kids Conference on Wednesday, April 25 from 3:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. (Room 1, Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green Street, Pasadena, CA). Federal Trade Commission Staff Attorney Kenneth H. Abbe and Travis LeBlanc, Special Assistant Attorney General for Technology for the State of California will deliver their remarks on the topic as part of conference's Digital Kids Safety Track.

This morning Reclaim Your Game tweeted that EA and BioWare continue to use the SecuROM DRM scheme for its games. The latest to use it is Mass Effect 3, but it appears to be integrated tightly into EA's Origin client. EA has insisted in the past that it is not using SecuROM in its software releases on PC.

Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge has launched a new web site called The Internet Blueprint. The goal of this new hub is to develop bills that will strengthen internet laws and ultimately make the internet a better place. The site is the group's response to lawmakers in Washington who asked Public Knowledge for input on how to improve the Internet.

A federal appeals court has concluded that a Florida man who refused to decrypt several electronic devices and was subsequently imprisoned, had his civil rights violated. This is the first time an appeals courts has ruled in favor of protections for encrypted devices and software. The court ruled in The United States v. Doe that the man's Fifth Amendment Rights were violated.

Former Republican congresswoman and lobbyist Susan Molinari has been named the head of Google’s Washington office, according to an exclusive report by Politico. The new job will put the former member of Congress of the front lines of privacy policy fights and laws legislation like SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA. The search engine giant is facing closer government scrutiny over its privacy policies and business practices.

Craigslist has added a section to its About Page dedicated to fighting against the Stop Online Piracy Action and Protect IP Act worth taking a look at. The page offers an exhaustive list of resources and points out efforts from the ECA, EFF, OpenCongress, and more. It also features its opposition prominently on its front page. The page also includes a rant which calls out Monster Cable as just one example of why it opposes both SOPA and PIPA:

League of Legends developer Riot Games let us know that they, have officially announced their opposition to controversial legislation under consideration in Congress: the U.S. House of Representatives’ Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The company's CEO, Brandon Beck, took to the official forums for the game (which has 11-million-players, for the record) to say that these two bills in their present form are unacceptable:

Forbes has an excellent editorial up about the ESA's support of the Stop Online Piracy Act that does a great job of explaining - in simple English - how it could affect every day web sites who might not necessarily be engaged in anything but providing content.

Professional game players organization Major League Gaming clearly is against the Stop Online Piracy Act and has made a move to show its disdain for the bill by removing one hundred domains from GoDaddy's care. The company announced yesterday that it will not align itself with companies that support the House anti-piracy bill.

A TechieBuzz report points out an interesting fact about GoDaddy's initial support of SOPA; that it may have been done as a way to deal with some problems related to some pending legal action against the company by some major Hollywood trade organizations. The report suggests that GoDaddy might have supported the bill to gain immunity from a court-case against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Anti-virus and security software maker Kaspersky is not happy with the Business Software Alliance's early support of SOPA and Protect IP in the U.S. Even though the BSA later walked back its support of SOPA, the Russian firm has had enough. It announced that it plans to leave the BSA over its support for SOPA. Kaspersky has announced that on January 1st 2012 it will withdraw its membership of the BSA.

 Internet users are wary of the U.S. House's Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate's PROTECT IP Act, and are already thinking of ways to get off the Internet the government hopes to to control very soon. One such movement came to fruition on Reddit, where outraged users decided that they needed to come up with some solutions.

The latest episode of The Jimquisition on The Escapist tackles Sony, EA and Nintendo's involvement in SOPA and Protect IP - two bills that propose doing horrible things in the name of protecting intellectual property rights, fighting piracy and killing the illicit counterfeit goods markets on the Internet.

Here's the lead in from irrepressible Destructoid editor Jim Sterling - or his The Escapist handlers (we're not sure which):

Overclock.net has gathered an avalanche of stories related to how Battlefield 3 and Origin are being received in Germany (thanks to Solarian for tip). The short answer is that Germans seem to hate it because of the company's terms of service and what Origin is doing on people's PCs.

On Wednesday Lawmakers in the United States introduced "The Stop Online Piracy Act," a bill that would give the government the ability to block web sites in the United States and abroad who traffic in counterfeit goods, illegal software, and other copyrighted goods.

Legal expert Arthur Miller will moderate a discussion on privacy and free speech in the age of mass media on October 29. Miller will lead PBS’ Jim Lehrer, Washington Post Company Chairman and CEO Donald Graham, Chief Judge David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Williams & Connolly partner Kevin Baine, among others, in a debate about how technology is challenging traditional notions of privacy in the media. The special event is put together for Concord Law School.

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, stops by TorrentFreak to offers his opinions on digital rights management. As you can probably guess, he thinks DRM should go the way of the dodo. Falkvinge starts by saying that after the European Greens’ adoption of his party's position on DRM, he has been getting a lot of questions about why DRM should be banned. He lays out his first point with the following:

The Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA) has issued an alert concerning a proposal before the Madison (Wisconsin) City Council that would force second-hand resellers to out sellers personal information in a database that local police would have access to. Obviously this is not a good idea - even in the name of tracking down criminals who steal and receive various goods - usually to fuel some type of addiction. The ECA's letter to members follows:

Sony has hired a heavyweight in its ongoing fight to protect its online game services from hackers. The company has hired Philip Reitinger, former director of the U.S. National Cyber Security Center, as its new chief information security officer.

Another day, another Sony-related web site gets hacked, according to the BBC. Hackers have managed to breach the security of Sony Ericsson Canada's online store, reportedly stealing users' personal data such as e-mails, passwords and telephone numbers. Sony has confirmed that this information has been stolen, but no credit card information was compromised.

Sony-related sites around the world have become the preferred target of hackers this this week; yesterday the website of the company's Greek music division was hacked and the personal information of about 8,500 customers was stolen. A company spokesman told the BBC earlier this week that Sony's Music Entertainment website in Indonesia and Sony's Thailand website were also hacked, though no data had been stolen in those cases.

No hacking groups have claimed responsibility for compromising these four sites.

Nintendo's Club Nintendo has revised its privacy policy related to online access via its new 3DS hand-held. Nintendo is asking users via an email circulated today to accept a brand new privacy policy that lets it share personal member information with Nintendo Japan. Members must accept the new terms by May 31 or face losing their accounts. There is apparently no way to opt out of these new terms. From the web site:

"The amendment of the Club Nintendo privacy policy was necessary due to the launch of the new Nintendo 3DS system which offers a broad variety of network services. As you can link your Club Nintendo account to your Nintendo 3DS system, we adjusted the existing privacy policy to reflect and explain this.

Was the PlayStation Network hacked? Sony says that an external force brought the network down somehow but has yet to elaborate on exactly what happened. But the one thing it has not talked about is what personal data might have been stolen by those that infiltrated the system last week.

Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, told PC World that it has not determined if "personal information or credit card numbers of users" has been stolen.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesman Patrick Seybold echoed Fukuoka's statement, confirming that its parent company is looking into whether personal data was stolen during the "external intrusion."

Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) this week introduced the "Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011," which they claim will establish a "baseline code of conduct" for how personal information is used, stored and distributed online.

"Americans have a right to decide how their information is collected, used, and distributed and businesses deserve the certainty that comes with clear guidelines," said Sen. Kerry in a statement about the new bill. "Our bill makes fair information practices the rules of the road, gives Americans the assurance that their personal information is secure, and allows our information driven economy to continue to thrive in today's global market."

The bill gives consumers notice of data collection and opt-out capabilities, while requiring companies collecting the information to provide adequate security and set limits on distribution.

U.S. retailer GameStop has been targeted by a class action lawsuit alleging it obtained and recorded personal information about its customers without their express consent. The main plaintiff in the case is Melissa Arechiga of Alameda County California. Her attorneys allege that GameStop illegally recorded her name, credit card number, and personal identification information (PII) following a shop purchase. The thrust of the lawsuit is that GameSpot regularly uses PII from customers to derive additional personal information, including residential addresses.

"Such conduct is performed intentionally and without the knowledge or consent of the cardholder, and is of potentially great benefit to [GameStop]," reads the suit.

According to a C|Net report, the Obama administration has drafted a new set of proposals to deal with intellectual property infringement online that it plans to send to the U.S. Congress very soon. The administration is also applauding  the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which it says will "aid right-holders and the U.S. government to combat infringement" once it enters into effect.

As the C|Net report notes, the 92-page report penned by intellectual property enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel reads as if it was ghost-written by lobbyists groups. There is some interesting data in there like the fact that the number of FBI and Homeland Security infringement investigations jumped 40 percent from 2009 to 2010, praise for ACTA, and details on various law enforcement operations.