This month, Facebook made a sneaky change to its privacy settings, and the new policy is generating a fierce backlash. The social network's default privacy setting now allows anyone to see a user's personal information. While users are permitted to change those settings, through an option to limit...

How much does your illness cost you and your insurer? According to a recent study by General Electric (GE) and the U.S. Department of Health's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a 50-year old with diabetes will rack up more than $6,600 in medical bills over the course of a year; someone...

Macy's (M) CEO Terry Lundgren says every dollar of online sales influences almost $6 of sales inside the retailer's stores. According to Lundgren, many shoppers first see an item online and want to look at it in person before making a purchase. For example, a customer may see a piece of clothing...

Macy's (M) CEO Terry Lundgren said he's "encouraged" by the level of buying activity at the company's Herald Square store in New York City Friday. The day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. is nicknamed Black Friday because it's the day when many retailers become profitable for the year. Macy's...

Apple (AAPL) broke its silence in the advertising battle going on between AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). The iPhone maker launched its ad campaign this week showing an iPhone user talking on the phone while surfing the Web as a voice asks, "Can your phone and your network do that?" It's Apple's...

Twitter co-founder and CEO Biz Stone said Thursday that Rupert Murdoch's potential plan to block Google from searching New Corp.'s (NWS) websites is doomed to fail. Murdoch has accused Google (GOOG) of stealing content from his publications, which include The Wall Street Journal and the New York...

Two weeks ago, in a post about AT&T's spotty third generation wireless coverage, I posed a simple question: "How about an announcement telling customers how AT&T has been working with Apple to help boost the quality of its iPhone service?" Now, that seems to be exactly what is happening....

EBay (EBAY) is a Web pioneer, having built a multibillion dollar business out of allowing people to essentially put garage sales on the Internet. That simple idea led to fast growth more than a decade ago and helped define what was possible online for other companies that followed. The company's...

Anyone who has ever gone on a Big Mac binge in hopes of winning the $1 million prize in the McDonald's Monopoly game may be feeling a little more hopeful. Brandi Futch, of White House, Tenn., collected both Boardwalk and Park Place (the two pieces needed to win) after she ordered a McChicken...

This summer, for the first time in five years, I used Priceline.com (PCLN) to book a hotel room and rental car. Turns out, I am part of a trend. The online travel agency saw an increase in bookings over the summer. Now it forecasts sales in the current quarter rising 28 percent from last year's...