CRM Update – Mar 09 : 11:08 pm

As companies like Google and Facebook fall under scrutiny for their online privacy policies, Americans are getting uncomfortable with the the fact that using a search engines could turn over their personal data for collection and targeted advertising.

Reuters cites a new Pew survey released today that shows just how discomfited we’re getting with web privacy policies. Google recently shmushed its privacy policies into one simple policy that encompasses users’ personal information for multiple products like YouTube and Gmail…

Kellie Clapper is an assistant vice president of public affairs at State Farm Insurance. She is helping State Farm launch Cause An Effect, the company’s first crowdsourced philanthropy program, which gives people a chance to bring home one of 40 $25,000 grants to their neighborhood.
As brands look for ways to more actively engage with consumers, many companies both large and small have turned to crowdsourced philanthropy – effectively turning over key elements of their philanthropic giving to consumers…

As an analyst and research firm focused on disruptive technologies, our clients and others frequently ask us what we are paying attention to and what we are researching. There are a multitude of areas we would like to be paying attention to and probably just as many that we would like to research, but we [...]

We’re a bit batty over airline news today, but this one just had to be posted: If anyone ever told you something unlikely would happen “when penguins fly,” you take this story and shove it right in that person’s face. Two penguins not only flew, but they traveled first class on the way to a premiere. Sure, they’re still technically flightless birds, but at least they got to see how the other species live.

Pete, 6, and Penny, 12, didn’t just kick back in first class on their Delta flight from Atlanta to New York, however…

If you need to step away from your career for a while to stay at home with your kids or care for an elderly or incapacitated loved one, your automatic systems for saving for retirement will probably shut down. In order to make sure you don’t jeopardize your nest egg, you’ll need to make adjustments to account for your decreased savings power.

Bucksome Boomer has advice for making such arrangements.

If you know you’ll want to be a stay-at-home parent but haven’t yet started your family, you can focus on saving more before you take that plunge before you take the plunge…

Paula Deen, the sassy, southern sweetheart of the Food Network, was one of the first “celebs” on Pinterest. I put “celeb” in quotations because the chef’s digital presence is actually managed by a team of two.
Jonathan Able and Lisa Scarbrough oversee Deen’s social media activity, which means curating content, posting recipes, engaging fans and, above all, upholding Deen’s unique brand. If you’ve ever wondered who’s behind the chef’s twangy Twitter voice (“Have y’all been able to try these Southern Side Dishes? I love ‘em for weeknight meals…

Aishel is an ADT home security system customer. When he received a letter in the mail that the company was increasing his monthly bill slightly, he decided that this change made him feel quite insecure in the wallet. He called up ADT to see whether they could waive the increase for him. Of course they could: and how would he like a $6 decrease in his monthly bill while he was at it?

I got a notification in the mail that ADT home security systems would be instituting a $2.79 per month increase to help bring “the level of service you deserve, and explore new ways to help you protect what matters most…

As I passed through the gates of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain last week, it struck me that the protests outside served as a metaphor for a collection of conference keynotes that warned of the impending wireless capacity crunch. Neither had much to do with the sea of booths showcasing creative new data-intensive apps and ever-more capable smartphones and tablets. But sooner or later, both will prove to be disruptive to those who are trying to make a living selling the products on the show floor…

Every year, taxpayers try to slip things into their taxes as deductions, things they might deem necessary business expenses that can be written off. Some of these things fly with tax preparers and subsequently, the Internal Revenue Service, while others, say, a subscription to Playboy, just don’t.

CNNMoney presents an entertaining list of some of the craziest things tax preparers have seen through the years, from the aforementioned nudie magazines to recreational drugs for the purposes of a band’s “entertainment” expenses…

You occasionally hear about teen pop stars and actors buying their own homes, but it’s not every day that you run across a seemingly average 14-year-old girl who not only purchased a property but has already turned it into an income generator.

NPR has the story of the Florida teen who has spent the last few years making a profit off the depressed local real estate market.

She would go around with her realtor mom as she showed foreclosed-upon and abandoned homes to investors…

Puffed quinoa? Mini cookies? Maybe throw in some blueberries, cinnamon or chia seeds? Whatever you want in your breakfast bowl, a newly hatched startup called Cerealize wants to sell you a subscription to it.
The startup’s eleven founders met at the start of an unusual hackathon called The Startup Bus on Tuesday. They’ve spent the past four days alongside other teams of entrepreneurs putting together a pilot site — while in transit to South by Southwest in Austin.
“We basically haven’t slept in four days,” says co-founder Falon Fatemi…

It’s all about spending to save
Daily dealing is alive and well in the United Kingdom (UK). The latest numbers are in and they show that UKers have spent over $460 million through daily dealing websites in the past six months. In fact, in order to keep the daily dealing mojo going, the first ever daily deal summit is scheduled for March 19th in London. That’s right gang DD Summit Europe 2012 will feature some of the big dawgs such as Groupon, LivingSocial UK, kgbdeals, Dealgecco, DiscountVouchers, Amazon and Travelzoo just to name a few of the 350 plus attendees that will be there…

Unless you’ve spent the past week unplugged from the social web, you’ve probably made note of an exceptionally viral 30-minute documentary called KONY 2012.
The film aims to make Joseph Kony, the leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) famous for his crimes against humanity, particularly kidnapping and abducting children, and turning them into child soldiers and sex slaves.
As of Friday morning, the film has been viewed 70 million times on YouTube and Vimeo and received almost half a million comments…

Google+ has more than 100 million active users, as long as you count them correctly. In a fireside chat at SXSW, Google+ Lead Vic Gundotra said Google’s social network enjoys 50 million users who sign in once a day and 100 million who sign in once a month, calling it the “fastest-growing service we’ve ever seen at Google.”
Those users, however, are not necessarily signing directly into Google +. Instead, they may be signing into one of the services “optimized for” Google+…

Fashism, a website and mobile app that lets users solicit community feedback on style, is diving into ecommerce with the launch of an accessories shop. Now, when users are told to “add a belt” or “toss in some bangles” to spruce up their outfits, they can act immediately on that advice.
Fashism co-founder and CEO Brooke Moreland says the move into retail was inspired by the community itself. Of the hundreds of thousands of comments left on users’ outfits, many include recommendations to add a single accessory…

While Apple and book publishers may find themselves on the precipice of an antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department, filings in a concurrent civil class-action lawsuit obtained by BetaNews indicate that Apple has already admitted to two of the most damaging allegations in the case that the federal government is likely to include.
According to reporting Thursday by the Wall Street Journal, at the heart of the case is the agreement struck with publishers which changed the way ebooks are sold to retailers…

The so-called “retina” display for the new iPad is by far its most obvious — and technologically remarkable — feature. After all, the upgraded screen crams more than 3 million pixels in an area smaller than a piece of paper. How did Apple do it? A display analysis company has the answer.
First, it’s important to understand the challenge. Besides the added difficulty in miniaturizing smaller components, when you shrink pixels down to the size they are in the new iPad, the tiny little wires that send signals to the pixels start to get so close together that they can affect each other…