In case you haven’t heard there are a few stories flying around about just how shielded bloggers are with regard to sources and protection afforded other journalists under the law. Yesterday we talked about one instance in New Jersey. Today we move cross country to the home of all things tech and watch as Gawker Media’s Gizmodo editor, Jason Chen, becomes the center of a legal and ethical conundrum of sorts.

The New York Times reports

Gawker Media said Monday that computers belonging to one of its editors, Jason Chen, were seized from his home on Friday in an apparent investigation into the sale of a next-generation Apple iPhone. Gawker suggested the action violated California’s shield law for journalists.

The headline alone is nothing that will surprise people, especially those in the online marketing industry. In fact, watching the decline and fall of the newspaper industry is some kind of guilty pleasure that everyone seems to relish. Since there are jobs and things at stake maybe that’s not such a good position to take but it is what it is, as they say.

The continued circulation declines however, are real news in the sense that it truly signifies the shift in how people get their information these days. Because of our ‘go-go’ lifestyle most people can’t be bothered with the print version of a newspaper. Commutes in cars make it harder to read a paper (notice I didn’t say impossible since there are still morons that think driving and reading the paper is simply multi-tasking). There is less time in the morning to ‘relax’ while reading the paper. Life is just different. Maybe not better but certainly different.

Google’s Street View has always been a lightning rod of sorts for privacy advocates. After all, if you find yourself looking out your window one day and a Google-mobile or trike or whatever they use these days to get information, shows up and starts taking pictures of your street and your home it can be a little creepy. It kind of gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “It’s a Google world and we’re just allowed to play in it”.

Nowhere has the concern for privacy been greater than in Europe. In particular, Germany has taken issue with many of Google’s information gathering activities. Well, now that there have been the “discovery” of what else Google is gathering the German government is sounding off again.

The Register reports