In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Facebook’s eventual IPO, how wall posts and pokes have changed the way people break up, and why Google is out of the doghouse in Great Britain.

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No IPO for Facebook Until 2012

It would appear that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn’t satisfied with having the world’s largest social networking website. No, he wants to go bigger. Which explains why Facebook “probably” won’t file for an initial public offering until 2012. As long as Zuckerberg is in charge of a private company, he maintains control. Once public shareholders get involved, however, the scrutiny over his decisions will only increase.

Zuckerberg Says Advanced Privacy Settings Decrease Engagement

Speaking of Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old CEO had some interesting things to say about privacy during an appearance at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last week. According to AllFacebook, Zuckerberg discussed how engagement has decreased in the United States as a result of advanced privacy settings. Clearly, this runs contrary to his goals for the company and is a big reason why Facebook takes such pains to make the website as open as possible.

Breaking Up on Facebook

In an interview for Today, Ilana Gershon, the author of “The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media,” discusses how social media technology has changed the way that college-aged individuals hook up and break up. The article also touches on the creepy practice of Facebook stalking an ex-partner, providing one frightening example: “The most unusual form of stalking came from a member of the older generation. A woman in the midst of divorce figured out her partner’s new lover by matching films in their Netflix queue against favorite movies listed on the suspected new lover’s Facebook page.”

Are Companies Really Downloading the Torrent of 100 Million Facebook Accounts?

Recently, a security researcher released a public list of 100 million Facebook profiles to numerous torrent websites. Quickly, some in the media began tracking who was downloading the data by their IP address. To their shock, it appeared that some major companies were downloading the information, implying that companies planned to use the information for marketing purposes. In an article for The Atlantic, Niraj Chokshi discusses how these fears are overblown and that it is more likely that one individual, using a company computer, attempted to download the data out of curiosity.

UK Clears Google for Wi-Fi Privacy Breach

After months of scrutiny, “the British government’s data-protection agency yesterday cleared Google of collecting ‘meaningful personal details’ during the company’s Street View wireless data breach earlier this year.” According to InformationWeek, “the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) concluded Google’s cars gathered only fragments and that this information could not be linked to identifiable individuals.” Google still faces scrutiny over the Wi-Fi leak in other countries, specifically Germany.