Want a metric for the speed of US government? Just look at the response to Google Street View cars' accidental collection of private data.

Google's secret Wi-Fi sniffing has prompted a class-action lawsuit that could force the company to pay up to $10,000 for each time it snatched data from unprotected hotspots, court documents show.

As the prospect of a flu pandemic grew more likely Wednesday -- the World Health Organization raised its threat alert to level 5 -- data is pouring into federal health care agencies using systems that a decade ago did not even exist.

The online advertising industry and U.S. policy makers need to give online users more control over the collection of personal data and surfing habits beyond the traditional opt-out approach, some privacy advocates said Wednesday.