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Microsoft is taking another swipe at Gmail with a campaign to encourage people to dump Gmail for Outlook over privacy concerns. Microsoft is drawing new attention to an old issue: Gmail scans the content of personal emails in order to better target ads. Microsoft is pushing a new poll it commissioned that found that nearly 9 in 10 Americans disapprove of the practice. Seven in 10 Americans said they didn't believe or didn't know that any major email service provider did that, according to the poll. Microsoft is using the poll results to bash its arch rival Google and promote its own email service. Microsoft scans email to filter spam or detect malware but says it does not scan email to target ads.

A billion-dollar business, online ad networks track consumer clickstream activity in order to sell behaviorally targeted ads to clients. But as more advertisers embrace the practice, fears about privacy concerns have intensified, leading many policymakers to doubt that self-regulation is sufficient to protect consumers from companies that may be secretly monitoring (and profiting) from their every click.

It’s a perception Marc Groman, a little more than a year into his position as executive director of the Network Advertising Initiative, would like to turn around. Groman is hoping that the self-regulatory organization’s annual compliance report, released Feb 7 along with a recently revamped web site designed to educate consumers about the benefits of targeted advertising and their opt-out options, will go a long way toward turning around the negative perceptions inside the Beltway.

Fox News has the most trustworthy television news reporters. Or -- depending on whom you ask -- the least trustworthy television reporters.

Public Policy Polling's annual survey of TV news found that when asked which network they trusted and mistrusted the most, a plurality of people answered Fox News for both categories "When it comes to asking Americans which single outlet they trust the most and least out of the ones we polled on, Fox News once again wins both honors," PPP said in its report. “Forty-one percent of voters trust it to 46 percent who do not. To put those numbers into some perspective the first time we did this poll, in 2010, 49 percent of voters trusted it to 37 percent who did not.” Asked which outlet they trusted the most, the 800 surveyed over the last month ranked Fox at 34 percent with PBS next at 13 percent, CNN at 12 percent, ABC at 11 percent, MSNBC at eight percent, CBS at six percent and Comedy Central and NBC at five percent each. But even more Americans identify Fox as the outlet they trust the least -- 39 percent give its that designation with 14 percent for MSNBC, 13 percent for CNN, 12 percent for Comedy Central, five percent for ABC and CBS, three percent for NBC, and one percent for PBS. But Fox's rankings also have the whiff of partisanship.

Over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the European Union.

It is part of a move to intensify global efforts to fight cybercrime. Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Europe needed to improve how it dealt with cybersecurity. But firms are concerned that reporting online attacks and security breaches might damage their reputations. The EU is keen that member states share information about attacks and shore up their cyber-defenses. Under the proposals, each country would have to appoint a Computer Emergency Response Team and create an authority to whom companies would report breaches.