An Internet privacy group that prodded US regulators to scrutinise Google is miffed about getting cut out of a class action settlement over the search behemoth?s Buzz social network. The Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) objected to the settlement in a court filing this week, claiming Google and others decided to fund groups already benefiting from the company?s largesse. EPIC, led by prominent privacy advocate Marc Rotenberg, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission last year, saying Buzz threatened the privacy of Gmail users. Google settled with the FTC on Wednesday and agreed to independent privacy audits. Google also agreed last year to resolve a separate class action lawsuit brought by a Gmail user. Part of that deal provided for more than $6 million to be distributed to groups advocating for Internet privacy issues. EPIC requested $1.75 million and while Google and plaintiff lawyers doled out money to groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Brookings Institution, EPIC did not get a cent. A federal judge will have to sign off on the disbursement plan. EPIC and a handful of other groups objected in a court filing Wednesday, saying the majority of funds would be allocated to groups that ?receive support from Google for lobbying, consulting, or similar services.? However, EPIC did not specify which of the groups provided lobbying services. Rotenberg declined to comment.

China?s Baidu to shut e-commerce platform

Baidu, China?s largest search engine, will shut its online e-commerce store, Youa, and migrate its users to other platforms, it said on Thursday. The shutdown will take effect in May and Youa?s existing merchants will be migrated to Rakuten China and Yaodian100, Baidu said in a statement. ?This should not be seen as Baidu withdrawing from the e-commerce scene. In fact, we are in research and development on a new e-commerce platform product which will suit users better,? a Baidu spokeswoman said. The closure of Youa, which Baidu had set up to rival Alibaba?s popular online shopping site, Taobao, cements Taobao?s position as the leading e-commerce player in China. Youa failed to gain traction with the majority of online users who preferred to use Taobao to buy and sell goods online. Based on gross merchandise value, Taobao commands more than 70% of China?s e-commerce market.

Nestle adds augmented reality to cereal boxes

Nestle is out to boost its share of the global breakfast cereal market with a dose of augmented reality supplied by French technology firm Dassault Systemes. A marker printed on 26 million Nestle cereal boxes being sold in 53 countries lets people with Web cameras linked to computers play an augmented reality game starring the main character of the animated film Rio. Players must lead an animated blue parrot named ?Blu? to a big bowl of cereal on screen using the marker from the back of the cereal box. Webcams read the marker and picture it on screen as a cup that players use to leave a trail of cereal bits for Blu to follow along a path to a giant bowl. The game built by a 3DVIA branch of Dassault Systemes was not released in the US, but it was on display at a Web 2.0 Expo that wrapped up on Thursday in San Francisco. The Rio game launched in mid-March was the third Nestle cereal marketing project for 3DVIA, which specialises in ?serious games? designed for major corporations.

Time Warner Cable drops Fox, Viacom from iPad app

Time Warner Cable is dropping channels from News Corp?s Fox Networks, Viacom and Discovery Communications from its iPad application after the cable networks complained that such use isn?t authorised. Time Warner Cable, the second-largest US cable-TV carrier, will focus on other channels for now and ?pursue all of our legal rights against the programmers who don?t share our vision,? according to a statement from the company on Friday. Fox sent a cease-and-desist letter to Time Warner Cable on Thursday, demanding the New York-based company stop streaming its programming on Apple?s iPad. Networks have criticised Time Warner Cable for using their programming in a format not specifically authorised in contracts, some of which were signed before the invention of tablet computers.

Affectiva technology taps into people?s emotions

Computers may soon understand people better than their spouses do, courtesy of innovations from startup Affectiva that expand on groundbreaking sensing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Affectiva co-founder and MIT professor Rosalind Picard showed off the fledgling firm?s feelings-sensing applications at a Web 2.0 Expo that ended Thursday in San Francisco. ?Feelings are complicated,? she said. ?Now, we can begin to measure them and learn.? Affectiva technology enables computers powering websites to scan web camera imagery for facial expressions, eye movements, and gestures that provide clues to emotional reactions to anything from film scenes, to game action or ads. ?It is getting past wishful thinking and wondering to understanding what is really going on, and that makes it much more actionable,? Picard said.