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Congress has become increasingly interested in the privacy implications of behavioral marketing. This summer, the Senate has held hearings, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has followed the charge by seeking more information from Internet service providers and technology companies regarding their privacy policies and targeted advertising.

Greenpeace certainly ranks as the highest-profile environmental group to take on Apple, the hip kid on the computer block. The organization is not Apple's only environmental adversary, though, and certainly not it's only worry in a marketplace rife with green claims and green concerns.

Who would like to bid the highest amount for the exclusive global rights to the new domain suffix, .dubai, under ICANN's latest policy? Such a suffix will create a powerful domain root that will corner some 180 services underneath it, like go.dubai, hotel.dubai, job.dubai, cars.dubai or fly.dubai. Who would be the next global cyber-branding leader of this new millennium?

In a slow news week, Salesforce.com had no trouble attracting our attention with a $31.5 million acquisition of InStranet. The skinny on this company is that InStranet enables customers to build knowledge bases for service and support applications. It was an area where Salesforce was relatively light, and the addition will strengthen the overall offering when it comes online sometime next year.

We offer strategies for keeping your Detailed Seller Rating above the new minimum set to take effect in November.

Dell is going after emerging markets with a new line of low-cost computers. The Vostro notebooks and desktops are the company's first models targeted specifically at China, India and a handful of other Asian, African and Latin American nations. The systems will sell for about the equivalent of $440 to $475.

Microsoft will receive nearly $21 million from Immersion, a company that develops "tactile-feedback" technology, after the two companies agreed to settle a lawsuit. San Jose, Calif.-based Immersion has developed tactile feedback technology, which makes video game controllers vibrate when there is an explosion or some other game action event.

Qik, a company that has developed live video streaming services for certain smartphones, has received a boost in its financial backing from Netscape veterans Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The duo, which have made a "significant investment" in the company, are also joining Qik's board of advisors. Bhaskar Roy, cofounder of Qik, declined to disclose the exact amount.

Chief executive Steve Ballmer's latest attempt at toppling Google is subtle and crafty.

Internet software developer GlobalSCAPE Inc. has hired James R. Morris as its new top executive after concluding its CEO search, the company said Wednesday. (GD)