This week, The Drill Down team and VentureBeat writer Sean Ludwig take a look the science of habit formation and how retailers and other businesses are leveraging that data to finely tune their marketing focus. Later we look at how Google bypassed privacy settings in Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Internet Explorer to track users web browsing.

But first, the headlines...Facebook launches verified accounts & pseudonyms, Apple delivers new version of OS X to developers, Foxconn hid underage workers before Fair Labor inspections, Google to sell heads-up glasses by year's end, and Flickr gets a major makeover.

Show Links

• Facebook Launches Verified Accounts and Pseudonyms
• Apple to Bring iPhone, iPad Features to Mac with Mountain Lion
• Foxconn hid underage workers before inspection
• Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year's End
• Flickr Is Getting a Major Makeover

Audible Book of the Week

• Book: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Musical Interlude #1
Hot Topic

• How Companies Learn Your Secrets

Musical Interlude #2
Final Word

• Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser Privacy Settings
• Google Bypassing User Privacy Settings on IE as well

The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!)

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This week, Andrew Sorcini, Devindra Hardawar, Dwayne De Freitas and Christopher Burnor  take a look at other companies that are storing your data without your permission, following last week’s coverage of the Path debacle, and later we examine former TechCrunch reporter turned Crunchfund partner MG Siegler's claim that tech journalists today are foregoing putting research and expertise into their work in favor of using sensationalism to chase pageviews. But first, the headlines...

Google develops a home entertainment system, two Kickstarter projects hit the $1 million mark, SNL pokes fun at Verizon marketing, Steve Jobs earns a posthumous Grammy, Twitter beats MSM on news of Whitney Houston's death, The Pirate Bay says goodbye to .torrent files, Apple readies the iPad3 (and tests an 8-in. tablet), and Apple invites inspections of its suppliers.

Show Links

• Contest: $50 ‘Cash Cab’ Giveaway on Geeks of Doom

Headlines

• Google Developing Home Entertainment System
• Google's Foray Into Hardware Will Be A Total Disaster — Here's Why
• Kickstarter crosses threshold as two projects hit $1 million in donations
• SNL on Verizon’s 4G marketing: “It’s an old person’s nightmare”
• Steve Jobs wins posthumous Grammy, accepted by Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue
• Twitter Breaks Whitney Houston Death News 27 Minutes Before Press
• The Pirate Bay Says Goodbye to (Most) Torrents on February 29
• iPad 3 announcement March 7, quad-core, possible 4G LTE
• Apple, Suppliers Test Tablet With Smaller, 8-in. Screen
• Fair Labor Association Begins Inspections of Foxconn

Audible Book of the Week

• The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick

Musical Interlude
Hot Topic
iPhone app contact data update & The State of Tech Journalism

• Twitter stores full iPhone contact list for 18 months, after scan
• Apple: App Access to Contact Data Will Require Explicit User Permission
• Your address book is mine: Many iPhone apps take your data
• Content Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink
• Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
• Paris Lemon and the No Good, Very Bad Day
• Happy Valentine's Day, Tech Bloggers

This week, The Drill Down team talk about online services that collect personal information to provide a more customized experience (including mobile app Path, which was recently discovered to upload your mobile address book to its servers without permission)...and the fine line between personalization and invasion of privacy.

But first, this week's headlines: We talk about a Best Buy ad featuring notable innovators of tech, Avid brings its editing software to the iPad, leaked features of Windows Phone 8, Amazon plans to open a chain of brick-and-mortar stores, Apple sued in China over use of the name 'iPad', Google develops HUD IP-connected goggles, and Slate gets more views by publishing less.

Show Links

What we’re playing with:
Andy: PS3 Media Server (Mac)
Devindra: Resident Evil: Revelations

Headlines

• Best Buy Super Bowl ad puts phone, app makers in one place

• Avid Brings Its "Pro-sumer" Video Editing App to iPad
• Windows Phone 8 preview
• Amazon in the Process of Launching a Retail Store
• Apple Might Lose A $1.6 Billion Lawsuit For Using The Word 'iPad'
• HUD Google Glasses are real and they are coming soon
• Hit record

Audible Book of the Week

• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Musical Interlude

Hot Topic: Personalized search, Dangers of Oversharing

• Google tracks consumers across products, users can’t opt out
• I'm all for sharing, but why the online obsession with revealing every detail...
• Facebook Is Using You
• Path 2 Uploads Address Book, But Says It Will Be Opt-In Soon
• Path's Address Book Mistake Shows an Apple Problem
• Path: We Are Sorry

The Drill Down on iTunes (please subscribe!)

Welcome Geeks of Doom readers! The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. You can find all our previous episodes here.

This week, TDD regulars Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Christopher Burnor discuss Fortune reporter Adam Lashinsky's Apple exposé, "Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired - and Secretive - Company Really Works", and whether the production of Apple products could ever come back to the US. Later we discuss Facebook's $5 BN IPO launch.

But first, the headlines: We discuss podcast hosting service Mevio dropping most free users without notice, Next-gen XBox specs, Netflix regains most of their lost subscribers, Warner Bros. further penalizes Netflix users, Twitter allows governments to censor tweets as needed, and President Obama hangs out on Google Plus.

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Show Links

• Pro Tip: Don’t Pivot Your Way Into Irrelevancy

Headlines

• Xbox 720 Will Be Six Times as Powerful as Current Gen, to debut Fall 2013
• Netflix Regains 600,000 U.S. Subscribers
• Warner Bros. now adding restrictions to your Netflix DVD queue
• Twitter Now Able To Censor Tweets, If Required By Law, Per Country
• Thailand Welcomes Twitter Censorship
• Watch Live: President Obama Answers Your Questions in a Google+Hangout

Audible Book of the Week

• Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired - and Secretive - Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky

Musical Interlude #1

Hot Topic

• The secrets Apple keeps
• Ex-Apple Employee: 'Tim Cook Could Be U.S. President'
• Apple's 'packaging room,' Steve Jobs's interest in Lytro cameras
• Apple Puts New Engineers on Fake Projects
• Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class
• Apple's universal remote concept hints at future television set

Musical Interlude #2

Final Word

• Facebook files S-1 to IPO, Letter From Mark Zuckerberg Urges Understanding Before investment
• Post-IPO, Facebook will have to make privacy investigations public