It's not a done deal that the government and Google will end up arguing the case in court, but a memo currently being prepared by the FTC is a big step in that direction:

The F.T.C. staff memo does not mean that the government will sue Google for antitrust violations. Next, the vote of three of the five F.T.C. commissioners would be required. And each step is a further prod for Google to make concessions to reach a settlement, before going to court. Last month, Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the F.T.C., said a final decision on whether to sue Google would be made before the end of this year.

Even if Google manages to soothe American concerns, a parallel European investigation into many of the same issues is proceeding apace. Above that, individual states are probing Google as well. The Times reports those states include New York, Texas and California.

According to the Times, practices questioned by the FTC include Google's use of AdWords as well as its smartphone business.

(Photo: Instagram)

Artist Arena, the division of Warner Music Group behind fan sites for pop music stars like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Rihanna and Demi Lovato, has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The New York Times reports that the company has agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty for illegally collecting personal information from children.

The pop stars themselves haven't been accused of any misconduct. But because Artist Arena asked for details like birth dates in order to let fans create online profiles, the FTC argued that the company knew very well that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa) by collecting the addresses and cellphone numbers of roughly 101,000 users aged 12 or younger without parental consent or notification.

If you think that's bad, you have to hear what Ronald McDonald has been up to.

The settlement agreement arrives just as the FTC wants to adopt major changes to outdated laws regarding online child privacy protection. Companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google submitted comments which warned that "some of the proposed changes were so unworkable that they could deter companies from providing sites and online services to children," says the Times.

The only upside in the seemingly intractable problem of protecting children, who are pretty adept at getting around those protections, without negatively affecting the rest of the Internet is that the Chairman of the FTC came thisclose to uttering the word "Belieber."

“Marketers need to know that even a bad case of Bieber Fever doesn’t excuse their legal obligation to get parental consent before collecting personal information from children,” Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the F.T.C., said in a statement.

Founder Kevin Systrom documents Stumptown Roasters, because of course (Photo: Instagram)

Five months after Facebook announced that it would be acquiring Instagram for $1 billion in cash (yay!) and stock (hrmm), the social network is rolling out the welcome mat. The deal was held up by a Federal Trade Commission investigation into potential anticompetitive practices. The FTC approved the acquisition a couple weeks ago, concluding that the popularity of Instagram competitors (like Hipstamatic and Camera Awesome) compared to Facebook Camera meant that competition was thriving.

In its report, the Office of Fair Trading included the fact that Instagram didn't have any revenue to speak of and didn't have data on its users--misreading the situation entirely. As The Next Web noted: "That discounts, of course, the enormous contextual value of the location data recorded with each image, not to mention the facial recognition database that Facebook has been working on making second-to-none."

In a post about the deal closing, Instagram revealed that its app has now been used to share more than 5 billion photos, a staggering jump from the 31 million and counting photos on the app before the acquisition was announced.   The number of users on Instagram is likewise rapidly trending upwards. It surpassed 80 million users in July, and is growing by more than 10 million users per month. Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's VP of engineering, emphasizedthe app's independence and community, pointing to developments in mobile:

As we said from the beginning, we are committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Instagram will continue to serve its community, and we will help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure. We also can’t wait to work with the talented Instagram team to improve the mobile experience.

Meanwhile Instagram, assured users that they had no big changes to fear, after noting a survey of what you can find on the app: "weddings to epic pilgrimages through the Spanish countryside." (Wait a second, is Gwyneth on Insta??)

 The Instagram app and its features will stay the same one you know and love, and we’ll keep working together to build a better Instagram for everyone.

The big question in our mind is still whether or not Instagram will be ported to the web. For regular users, it's a mixed bag--trading in the sense of intimacy and privacy (whether or not your account is private) for better stalking capabilities. Until then, there's our new friend: Westagram. Sorry, pal, but we fear you are not long for this world.

Sen. Charles Schumer

Well-known foe of fun and fan of probes Senator Charles Schumer has asked the Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) to examine claims Apple and Android can spy on your application data. The Senator's request was made public Sunday. In it he referenced recent reports that certain smart phone and tablet applications can look at user photos and upload contacts to Apple and Google servers.

As reported by Reuters, the Senator's letter to the F.T.C.  stated that the app functions in question "go well beyond what a reasonable user understands himself to be consenting to when he allows an app to access data on the phone for purposes of the app's functionality."

Mr. Schumer also pointed out that the companies may be violating their own terms of service in allowing applications such easy access to private data. Apple and Google, the Senator wrote, "should be required to put in place safety measures to ensure third party applications are not able to violate a user's personal privacy by stealing photographs or data that the user did not consciously decide to make public."

It is still unclear as to whether this counts as another item in the Observer's recent rundown of "fun" things Sen. Schumer has "tried to destroy."