From an article by Eric Dash in today's New York Times on data privacy:

Switzerland, for example, requires every employee who handles sensitive data like credit information to "sign a very draconian document," Ted Crooks, vice president of global fraud solutions for Fair Isaac, a data analytics company, said of data protection laws in that country.

"You don't mess with Swiss data," he said.

Russell Flannery reports for Forbes.com tonight that Yahoo! is in advanced talks to purchase a 35% stake in China's Alibaba.com for almost $1 billion.

Kathy Kristof writes for the Los Angeles Times about the increasing use of customer credit reports by credit card issuers and how rates can rise based upon what they contain.