In today’s Quick Hits, we touch on Facebook advertising, Twitter’s newest revenue stream, and the disconnect between tech guys and politicians.

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Facebook Explains How Advertising Works

In a post at the Official Facebook Blog, Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg explains “the role of advertising on Facebook.” Sandberg writes that user anonymity is always protected on Facebook because advertisers never get to see personal data about users. Rather, advertisers submit their ads, ask Facebook to target a certain demographic of users, and then Facebook finds that demographic and delivers the ads.

Twitter Releases @Earlybird Feature

Twitter released one of its new monetization efforts, an advertising feature called Earlybird. The feature, which is modeled after websites like Woot.com and Groupon, offers followers of the @Earlybird account the opportunity to purchase products and services at a reduced rate for a limited time.

Facebook Most Popular Third-Party Log-in Credentials

According to Gigya, a provider of social sharing and third-party log-in tools, social media users prefer to use their Facebook account information to log-in to third-party websites more than any other alternative credential. The only exception to this is when users log-in to news websites. If a user is logging-on to a news website with third-party credentials, they will most likely use Twitter.

German Privacy Official Takes Legal Action Against Facebook

A German government official has taken legal action against Facebook for “illegally accessing and saving personal data of people who don’t use the social networking site.” According to Johannes Caspar, Facebook changed its privacy settings in April to allow users to block access to the contacts listed in their e-mail, but the previously saved contacts have not been erased and are being used for marketing purposes. The merit of Caspar’s argument has yet to be determined. Even among privacy-conscious Europe, Germany has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world.

Refining the Relationship Between Silicon Valley and Washington D.C.

In his Between the Lines blog on ZDNet, Sam Diaz ponders the relationship between Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley. While many tech experts are critical of politicians for being behind-the-curve when it comes to tech issues, Diaz argues that tech professionals need to do a better job of understanding how politics works and find different ways to appeal to policymakers.