By James Kendrick

Microsoft has announced a licensing agreement with HTC for its mobile phone patents that gives HTC access to “broad coverage” under Microsoft’s patent portfolio. HTC will pay Microsoft royalties for the Android phones it sells. This agreement comes in the shadow of Apple suing HTC for patent infringement, a move widely believed to be aimed at Google and Android. Analysts are already stating that this deal between HTC and Microsoft is aimed at defusing the Apple suit, but…

By eCredit Daily

When Facebook first revealed it would share personal profile information with third-party partner sites, users and privacy advocates voiced concerns and anger.

Now a U.S. Senator wants the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that protects consumers from advance-fee schemes, deceptive marketing practices and credit card scams, to consider if federal guidelines are necessary to protect social media site users from privacy violations.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said he asked the FTC to examine the privacy disclosures of social networking…