E.U. grants approval to Google, Motorola: The European Union has granted its approval to the merger between Google and Motorola Mobility, a $12.5 billion deal proposed in August.

The European Commission ruled Monday that the deal doesn’t significantly change the technology landscape for mobile devices, The Associated Press reported, and that it does not believe Google will keep other companies from using the Android smartphone operating system after the deal is complete, but will have to tread carefully or face stiff sanctions.

FCC hearing: Following the Federal Communications Commission’s monthly meeting Wednesday, the House subcommittee on technology will hold a hearing Thursday to look at the Federal Communication Commission’s budget and spending.

Witnesses for the hearing have not yet been announced. Last week, the House Energy and Commerce committee delayed the markup of two bills that would change the way the agency operates, limiting the conditions the agency could place on mergers and codifying the FCC’s unofficial “shot clock.”

Cybersecurity: The Senate will be focused on cybersecurity this week, with two hearings coming Thursday on cybersecurity issues.

Ahead of a hearing from the Senate Homeland Security Committee, The Hill reported that Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is planning to introduce cybersecurity legislation that would give the DHS the power to regulate companies with systems deemed critical to the country’s infrastructure.

Witnesses at the hearing will include DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and National Security Task Force chairman Thomas Ridge.

Also on Thursday, the subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence will hold a hearing looking closely at Homeland Security’s policy on monitoring social networking sites.

House broadband hearing: The House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing examining broadband adoption and its role in the growth of small businesses. Witnesses for the panel include several executives from rural broadband and telecommunications groups.

“When enacting technology and broadband policies, we must first make a commitment to ensuring that small businesses and rural communities will benefit fromthis increased infrastructure development,” said chairman Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) in a statement. “Regulatory policies that diminish the incentive for such private sector investment will benefit neither small businesses nor the economies that rely on them.”

Apple tops $500 per share: Apple shares broke $500 for the first time on Monday, jumping 25 percent in six months after the hot tech stock passed the $400 mark in July. The stock opened at $499.53 and immediately jumped to $501. Since reporting its first-quarter results in January, Apple shares have climbed steadily and grown roughly 17 percent in the past month.

Apple opens up factories to FLA: Apple announced Monday that it had opened up its factories for independent audit to the Fair Labor Association. The computer company announced that it would be joining the group a month ago, becoming the first technology firm to do so.

The inspections will begin at Apple’s Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at the company’s request, Apple said in a release Monday.

The FLA will publish the reports publicly and will include the names of the factories it audits. The results of the investigation will be released in March.

Google privacy suit: A federal court said Thursday that it would accelerate a lawsuit that aims to punish Google for alleged privacy violations, The Washington Post reported.

The U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia agreed to a request by plaintiffs The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) to speed the review of its lawsuit filed against the Federal Trade Commission earlier this week. In the suit, EPIC said Google’s planned privacy policy changes scheduled for March 1 will violate a settlement with the FTC.

The court on Thursday ordered the FTC to respond to EPIC’s complaint by Feb. 17. EPIC will then reply to those comments by Feb. 21.

In response to the suit, Google said: “We take privacy very seriously. We’re happy to engage in constructive conversations about our updated Privacy Policy but EPIC is wrong on the facts and the law.”

Companies will play nice with patent suits: Technology firms including companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google, are trying to tell regulators that their constant battles over intellectual property won’t have a negative effect on the industry, The Washington Post reported.

As the Justice Department prepares to rule on the proposed merger between Google and Motorola Mobility, the search giant has said that it will continue to license patents deemed essential to the industry under the same “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) terms that it always has.

“Since we announced our agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility last August, we’ve heard questions about whether Motorola Mobility’s standard-essential patents will continue to be licensed on FRAND terms once we’ve closed this transaction,” said Google in a statement. “The answer is simple: They will.”

E-Rate fraud: On Thursday, the Justice Department announced that it has sentenced the former owner of an Illinois technology company charged with attempting to defraud the federal E-Rate program to 30 months in jail.

E-Rate is the common name for the schools and libraries program administrated by the Universal Service Fund. It subsidizes the cost of telecommunications and computer networks to disadvantaged institutions. The woman charged with the conspiracy, Gloria Harper, is said to have bribed school officials and employees in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois and Louisiana to ensure that E-Rate contracts would be given to certain schools.

In a statement about the news, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said, “This successful prosecution reflects the collaborative efforts of the DOJ and FCC to protect E-rate from waste, fraud, and abuse, and to deter future misconduct.”

Google entertainment: Paperwork may not always be exciting, but a December Google filing with the Federal Communications Commission made a splash recently when it revealed that the Internet search giant had applied to test an “entertainment device.”

Or, to be more exact, 252 devices. The filing asked for permission to begin a six-month trial run of the device, starting Jan. 17, that connects to home WiFi networks and uses Bluetooth to connect with other home electronics. In a Thursday report, the Wall Street Journal cited sources “briefed on the company’s plans” who said that the mysterious Android-based device is a home-entertainment system that will stream music and possibly other digital media.

Broadband consumers: In a national survey of over 30,000 online customers, the consumer Web site Broadband Expert found that 94 percent of those surveyed think they pay too much for their broadband service. Not only that, they feel that they are overpaying by a significant margin — at least 26 to 50 percent more than they think is fair.

Customers also expressed confusion over how broadband plans are priced, saying that they would like to see clearer comparisons of different ISP plans, an easier way to find broadband service providers in their area and more independent customer reviews.

A federal court said Thursday that it would accelerate a lawsuit that aims to punish Google for alleged privacy violations.

The U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia agreed to a request by plaintiffs The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) to speed the review of a lawsuit the privacy group filed against the Federal Trade Commission earlier this week. In its suit, EPIC said Google’s planned privacy policy changes scheduled for March 1 will violate a settlement with the FTC.

The court on Thursday ordered the FTC to respond to EPIC’s complaint by Feb. 17. EPIC will then reply to those comments by Feb. 21.

The court case adds pressure to Google and could delay its plans to combine databases between its 60 services for account holders of Gmail and other products. The company hopes to form more complete user profiles and then tailor ads to those users’ preferences.

“The Court’s deadlines reflect Google’s imminent, substantial changes to the company’s business practices,” EPIC wrote in a blog post.

EPIC has argued that Google will violate a privacy agreement with the FTC. The company has misrepresented its intention to use combined data for behavioral advertising, EPIC wrote in its complaint. And the changes are not optional, which doesn’t allow users to give expressed permission to participate in the new program, the group said.

Google has refuted those claims. It said earlier this week that the company has taken extra steps to notify users of the changes. It notes that users can search and watch videos on YouTube, for example, without signing on to an account.

“We take privacy very seriously. We’re happy to engage in constructive conversations about our updated Privacy Policy but EPIC is wrong on the facts and the law,” the company said in a statement.

Google’s privacy policies have drawn increased scrutiny by lawmakers, who on Thursday asked the company to clarify its plans.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) said in a letter to Google sent Thursday that she still has questions about the company’s potential impact on consumers. About a dozen House members attended a closed-door meeting last week with Google policy director Pablo Chavez and deputy general counsel Michael Yang, but Bono Mack said she still had some questions.

In the letter, Bono Mack asked Google for more clarification on several aspects of the policy, including what the company considers “sensitive personal information” and how the company shares personal information collected from its users. She also asked whether the company sent its privacy changes to the Federal Trade Commission before deciding to change its policy, as is required by its consent decree with the agency.

Bono Mack has asked for a response to her questions by Feb. 21. The new policy is set to go into effect on March 1.

“Privacy is something we take very seriously, and we’re happy to answer their questions,” Google said in an e-mailed statement.

Related:

FTC sued over Google privacy policy

EU asks Google to delay privacy policy changes

Few would dispute Steve Jobs’s creative genius. But for all his success as a business leader and innovator, files newly released by the FBI show that some close confidants and associates did not have an especially favorable opinion of the Apple co-founder.

As The Post’s Hayley Tsukayama reports, the FBI has made public a 191-page document on Jobs that was compiled when he was under consideration for a White House appointment during the George H.W. Bush administration.

Steve Jobs file posted on FBI site: Steve Jobs, being considered in 1991 for an appointment under President George H.W. Bush, underwent a thorough background investigation by the FBI, according to newly released files from the agency. The Washington Post reported that the FBI amassed a lengthy and often unflattering file on Apple’s co-founder, with more than 30 interviews from friends, family members and colleagues. Despite many interviewees saying that they did not personally like Jobs, many said that they would recommend him for a position in government.

The files were made public after a Freedom of Information Act request by the Wall Street Journal.

Verizon shot clock : Public interest groups and companies including Sprint, DirecTV, T-Mobile and the Rural Cellular Association have asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop its shot clock on its evaluation of a proposed agreement between Verizon and several cable companies.

The deal, a spectrum and cross-marketing proposal, is currently under consideration at the FCC, and the companies and public interest groups would like to see information about the pricing and compensation portions of the deal unredacted.

Google, Motorola: Sources “familiar with the matter” have told Bloomberg that the U.S. Justice Department is close to approving the deal between Google and Motorola Mobility. The proposed $12.5 billion acquisition was announced in August.

If approved, the merger would provide Google with Motorola’s deep portfolio of patents. The acquisition of so many patents should prove useful in case of litigation over technology used in Google’s Android operating system.

FTC lawsuit over Google privacy: Privacy advocates on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit aimed at forcing government officials to punish Google over alleged privacy violations, The Washington Post reported. In the complaint, the Electronic Privacy and Information Center said Google’s plans to tie together data of users across services beginning March 1 violates a settlement agreement the company struck with the Federal Trade Commission last summer over a separate privacy controversy.

The firm defended its privacy policy changes by saying it isn’t seeking to collect more information about users.

“Our updated privacy policy will make it easier to understand our privacy commitments, and we’ve undertaken the most extensive notification effort in Google’s history to ensure that users have many opportunities to learn about the changes,” Google said in a statement.

TV cameras in the Supreme Court: On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would allow television cameras into the Supreme Court. The bipartisan bill passed with a vote of 11-7.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he supported the bill because it increases transparency.

“We have the power to use technology to allow greater access to public proceedings of the Government so that all Americans can witness the quality of justice in this country,” Leahy said in a statement.

Critics of the bill warned that the measure could sway some justices and lawyers to feel the need to perform for the cameras, The Hill reported.

“I do not believe that justice is better because it’s televised,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) “And I have seen actual situations where, in my view, it’s worse.”