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The Wall Street Journalcontinues to beat the drum over the way people’s personal information is shared with advertising companies online. Today it claims Facebookbreached user privacy by allowing third party applications, like Zynga’s massively popular Farmville, to share sensitive user data with advertisers. Actually, most of the information highlighted in the story is already public record, and nothing Facebook did is any more reckless than what the Wall Street Journal does every day.

The Journal’s main scoop is that as many as 25 apps are sending advertisers user’s Facebook ID numbers.

“Facebook ID” number assigned to every user on the site. Since a Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profile, anyone can use an ID number to look up a person’s name, using a standard Web browser, even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private. For other users, the Facebook ID reveals information they have set to share with “everyone,” including age, residence, occupation and photos.

These names and IDs are already available for every profile through a simple Google (GOOG) search. Just look up a person’s name, click on their profile photo, and write down the string of numbers in their URL. That’s their name and Facebook ID.

As Jeff Jarvis points out, The Wall Street Journal also shares its user’s information with third party advertising networks. And according to the WSJ’s Privacy Policy, “We’re not responsible for the privacy practices of web sites operated by third parties that are linked to or integrated with our sites or for the privacy practices of third party Internet advertising companies.”

The feeling among publishers and platforms like Facebook has always been that its better the customer doesn’t see how the sausage gets made. But as the WSJ’s ongoing series shows, even the mundane details of online advertising can be trumped up to sound like invasive snooping. Facebook would be well served to start educating their users to the mechanics of this industry so that the media’s ominous tone doesn’t dominate the conversation.

Burberry Group, the U.K.’s largest luxury company (think distinctive camel and black plaid on everything from cashmere scarves to umbrellas) has been beating the stuffing out of the recession, a time when many luxury brands saw customers turn from fashionista to frugalista overnight. London-basedBurberry’s still climbing, posting a second-quarter sales gain of 11.3 percent to £382 million, and charging ahead with global expansion plans and e-commerce improvements.

So how exactly is Burberry’s management tiptoeing through the tulips (stock has risen nearly 90 percent over the last 12 months) while others are slogging through the muck of inventory and declines in profits? Read on:

Strong Leadership

CEO Angela Ahrendts may not be British, or even possess a high fashion American pedigree. But the woman from a small town in Indiana did her time (30 years) in the retail trenches through Warnaco, Donna Karan (where she was president in the mid-1990s), and Liz Claiborne. She joined Burberry in 2006, just in time to commandeer the company through a radical brand makeover. The signature fabric was being widely reproduced illegally, and adopted by the likes of Britain’s troublemaking soccer fans, or “chavs,” and by B-list celebrities (who piled on the plaid for paparazzi photos).

Amid sweeping back-room changes, Ahrendts also ordered the iconic pattern struck from all but about 10 percent of the items Burberry produced.  Then, she wisely left the design vision in the capable hands of Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer, who’s successfully navigated the line between commercial appeal and covetable on-trend edginess. Bailey’s given plenty of leeway to experiment with the brand’s Prorsum collections, which are heavy on the fashion cred, however light on revenues.

Results so far: the brand has been restored to its former coveted glory.

Front End Investment

Back in 2005, Burberry implemented Project Atlas IT infrastructure redesign, a five-year plan to improve UK-based financial and non-stock procurement, production planning, manufacturing, and procurement systems. Atlas also took aim at retail sales and inventory with the installation of a tactical software solution.

It wasn’t cheap. In 2007 Burberry took a £21.6 million hit, nearly double the £11.1 million spend reported in 2006. But in addition to future savings and considerable rise in profits, Atlas improved Burberry’s supplier management, product development processes, and gave the company a nimble platform to respond to market changes.

Results so far: costs cut by sourcing many materials from Europe rather than China; a capsule collection that went from drawing board to shopper’s backs in just three months; and a quantum leap forward in e-commerce by broadcasting the Fall/Winter womenswear show to five locations –- New York, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo and LA — complete with 3D glasses. Burberry’s CFO Stacey Cartwright toldWWD that the second quarter sales gains “were high-quality sales — from main line stores rather than outlets — and there were fewer markdowns than in the past. And our goal in the period was to drive margins rather than comparative sales.”

Quick-Cut Losses

Burberry also took a hit last year on writedowns of its Spanish stores. Though closing its Spanish design facility, cutting jobs, and adding higher-margin products to drive profit will still result in a loss of push the division to a loss of £10 million this year, the unit is expected to turn a “modest profit” by fiscal 2012.

Aggressive Global Expansion

Like other savvy manufacturers and retailers of apparel, accessories and luxury goods who anticipated the growth of the Chinese middle class market, estimated at 157 million people, Burberry just completed a buy-back of its Chinese franchises. The £70 million dealgives Burberry direct control of its 50 stores on the mainland and is projected to add up to £20m to operating profits in 2011.

Ahrendts’ total capital spending plan is going to increase by 86 percent this year. 20 to 30 stores are set to open in the Americas and other Asia-Pacific regions; some stores will be renovated, too.

Early results: Retail and wholesale revenues rose by 8 per cent to £159 million in the Americas but sales in that region where overtaken by trading in Asia Pacific, where revenues jumped by 31 per cent to £175 million.

You could say Burberry’s has turned that iconic plaid into a magic carpet to the land of profitability. Let’s hope the 154-year old company can hang on for the adventure ahead.

You’ve passed every biology quiz that’s been put in front of you and learned to whip through a French history paper or a set of calculus problems, but there is one question that still bedevils a lot of recent college graduates — what are you going to do now?   The obvious answer is get a job, but which job? From family, friends and TV characters, you probably know the standard doctor, lawyer and police investigator, but according to Matt Mahoney, founder of site Daily Endeavor, there are actually something in the neighborhood of 250,000 jobs out there. One of those may be perfect for you you, but how do you find out about it?

In a podcast interview with blogger Lindsey Pollak, Mahoney pitches his own site as a resource but also offers some general advice on how you can go about exploring the wide world of little known career paths. After a quick caution about looking for a career you’re passionate about, he offers these basic tips:

• Start with your interests. Search by interests and what you like to do, even if you’re not sure what industry or function that interest might lead to. Don’t just focus on the field you think you want to explore. Don’t just focus on your major. Think about what you really, truly love to do.
• Ask yourself these key questions: What do you want to be better known for? What do you want to go see for yourself? Your answers to these questions don’t have to last forever. Come up with answers for just the next two years or so.
• Remember that choosing a career these days is not about choosing the rest of your life. Given the ever-changing nature of the job market right now, chances are you will eventually end up playing a role that hasn’t even been written yet. Focus on where you are now, and the rest will come with time.

You’re working three times as hard as you ever did, covering for all your laid-off colleagues and doing everything you can to be indispensable. Every night you tell your spouse that they don’t pay you nearly enough for this much work. And lately, well, you’ve actually begun to believe it.

But how do you know for sure how your salary stacks up to that of others doing half the work? Online salary survey sites? Too often they’re too broad or too limited in their sample size to be of much use. Ultimately, the best way to know what you should be paid is to find out what the market is right now for your job — in other words, what others earn for doing the same job. Fine, you say, but how do you get your peers to spill their salary, information that most people guard more closely than their sex lives? Wheedling salary information out of people may not feel like the most dignified thing to do in the world, but sometimes it’s information you just have to have.

Getting the Word From Current Colleagues

What your co-workers make is obviously the best guide to what your employer sees as fair value for your human capital. But this information is also the hardest to get. Most people are shy about revealing their income, and they’re most reluctant to share this information with current colleagues. Likewise, employers aren’t wild about having their workers bare their financial linens to each other, partly out of fear that people will do just what you’re planning to do — use the information to squeeze a raise out of them. Some companies even have policies against employees sharing their pay rates.

Still, if you can bring yourself to ask for private information — and there’s no risk your colleague can actually lose their job for divulging — the best strategy is to be honest about what you’re looking for and volunteer your own salary information first. “Honesty begets honesty,” says Angela Kay Larson, a career coach and president of Act2 Strategists in Rockford, Illinois. “Tell them, ‘I’m not sure my salary reflects market value, so I’m checking with colleagues to find out what the current salary range is in our field. Would you be willing to talk about your compensation?’” Assure them that you’ll keep the information confidential, and then if they’re willing, start by giving them a range for where your base pay falls and asking them how it compares with theirs, advises Larson.

One particularly effective strategy in all these discussions is not to put too much pressure on the other person to give you their information. Let them know that if they aren’t comfortable talking about salary, that’s fine. “Once you offer people a way off the hook, they are often much more open and may even suggest others you can speak with,” says Nancy Fox, founder of Fox Coaching in Mamaroneck, New York.

Remember to take your colleagues’ answers with a grain of salt, though. They may not want anyone to know they are making as much — or as little — as they are, and may simply lie. “In this market people are extremely gun shy about revealing information,” says Fox.

Baring All to Former Colleagues

The people you used to work with can be a very good source of information. Discussing salary is often less personal and less competitive when it’s with someone you don’t work with directly. But unless you know the person really well, you can’t just call up a former cubicle-mate and ask, “What do you make now?” One strategy is to approach ex-colleagues as though you’re looking for an informational interview or a mentorship. “If it’s someone who has moved higher up in their organization, you can ask them for some mentoring,” says Fox. “Tell them you’re considering making some career changes and need information to help you position yourself. Then ask what guidance they could provide to you about the salary range appropriate for your level in a company of your size.”

If you’re asking an ex-colleague who has made a lateral move to another company, you have another delicate situation. “Let your former colleague know you respect their opinion and are looking for some advice about what you should expect in terms of your salary range,” says Fox. That way, you’re asking for their advice, not their salary. The key is keeping the conversation as informal as possible, says Lee E. Miller, a career consultant in Morristown, New Jersey, and author of Get More Money on Your Next Job In Any Economy. “You could ask, ‘What would a good structural engineer at this level make at your company?’” Miller says. “Even if you’re talking to someone who is actually in that position, you are asking what someone else might earn, not what they themselves are earning.”

Peers at Similar Companies

People in your job at competing companies might also be willing to discuss salary with you, particularly if you have a personal connection. So canvas your network, online and off, about who they know at other companies and could recommend you to. College alumni associations are a good way to identify peers and create a situation where they’d feel comfortable speaking with you.

When you do call, Eric Hosken, a partner with Executive Compensation Advisors in New York City, advises volunteering your own salary information first. “Then say, ‘Does that sound competitive with what you’re making or your company offers?’ Without giving away their salary, the person you’ve called can say, ‘That sounds way under,’ or ‘That’s a little high,’” he says.

Another excellent source of salary information is someone at a similar company who manages people at your level. A former boss with whom you got along well or a former colleague who has been promoted would be good people to try, says Fox.

Getting Help From Executive Recruiters

Few know more about what your job should pay than recruiters, who are often involved in structuring compensation for their corporate clients and have firsthand data about current salaries. The best way to get them to discuss salary info with you is to establish ongoing relationships with a few who specialize in your function, not just your job title or industry.

Schedule an appointment with each recruiter to discuss your credentials and overall career plans. That will enable you to tap them more than once for information about salary and compensation, says Patrick Sylvester, CEO of executive search firm Banister International, in Philadelphia. You don’t have to be actively looking for a job at that moment as long as there is some quid pro quo, he says. “Tell the recruiter that if a job isn’t right for you, you will refer them to other, well-qualified candidates. That makes it a two-sided relationship.”

Indeed, give and take is often the key to mastering these delicate discussions. It’s never comfortable trying to get information out of people who don’t want to give it. But keep telling yourself that all you are tying to do is establish your fair market value. After all, no one has as deep an interest as you in making sure you get paid what you’re worth. But you have every right to know.

I’m often critical of the folderol of modern marketing, like strategy, branding, and qualitative “research.”  However, I DO believe that marketing can play an important role in making a company more effective.  Here are three down-to-earth ideas, that virtually any marketing group can implement, which are highly useful in keeping a firm competitive:

IDEA #1: Research who’s buying but not considering your firm.

Many companies examine situations where they’ve won in order to replicate success. Some companies also examine situations where they’ve lost, so that they know what to avoid in the future. A very few companies even examine situations where no decision was made, so that they can avoid the unnecessary sales expense inherent in chasing phantom deals. However, if you really want to grow your business, examine the cases where companies did a deal with your competitors and your company wasn’t even considered for the business. That’s the best way to uncover the real weaknesses of your marketing and sales efforts.

IDEA #2. Refocus your efforts on reducing the cost of sales.

Everyone talks about aligning sales and marketing, but that’s only a means to an end. If the marketing group is wasting time on airy-fairy, pie-in-the-sky strategy, aligning sales is only going to make it MORE difficult to get customers on board.  On the other hand, if you refocus market on reducing the cost of sales and increase the effectiveness of the sales process, the alignment works the right way — with the Sales team taking the lead.  Hint: Make sure marketing is goaled and compensated on its ability to make the sales team more effective – in a way that the CEO can easily measure.

IDEA #3: Cross-pollinate your sales and marketing groups.

Selling is like sex.  Until you’ve done it a few times, your advice on the subject is worse than useless.  Similarly, most marketing professionals can’t possibly  help sales reps to sell unless they’ve learned how to sell themselves.  The reverse is also true, to a limited degree.  Sales professionals can’t make effective use of marketing campaigns, or give appropriate feedback to make them better, unless they’ve worked inside a marketing environment. Therefore, if you want your sales and marketing teams to work together, make sure that every sales person has a stint in marketing and vice versa.

The above is based upon a conversation with Jim Dickie, a managing partner at CSO Insights, a company that studies sales trends and sales effectiveness.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that housing starts surged in September to a 610,000 unit rate, its highest rate since April, and on the heels of the best builder confidence numbers in four months. New building permits, however, dipped by almost 6 percent, which isn’t exactly encouraging for starts going forward. What do these statistics reveal about the state of the housing market? Diane Swonk gives us her take.

–Nelson Wang

Still A Long Road Ahead

The level of housing activity remains extremely low, given how far we are into the expansion. We have a long way to go just to restore starts to a level consistent with household formation, let alone tap the pent-up demand that is building due to record low rates and an exceedingly high level of affordability. In some areas, rents are now exceeding marginal ownership costs, which usually means that ownership is preferable to renting. Buyers are finding, however, that they are unable to meet the higher hurdles to getting a mortgage that are being erected in what is still a very uncertain environment.

Impact of Foreclosure Mess

The recent troubles with foreclosures only further complicates the situation, as it is making banks even more hesitant to underwrite new mortgages. The risk is that we see another setback in housing before the year is over if the foreclosure situation is not resolved quickly.

The Fed’s Strategy

The rebound in starts is encouraging and critical if we hope to see a re-acceleration in growth. It is even more critical to the outlook for employment, as construction been among the hardest hit sectors by the crisis. The road ahead remains rocky, and without a lot of sign posts to guide us. Hope that the Fed has some impact with the efforts to ease further in November. The fact that other central banks are joining them may help to magnify the positive effects associated with additional easing, even if they are small.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, talks to CBS MoneyWatch twice a week about the day’s top economic news and developments. Her responses are edited for clarity and length.

he U.S. is mired in an economic doldrums of its own creation. Weighed down by the excessive debt run up relying on the financial and housing industries to provide jobs and create wealth, the country desperately needs a new engine to the economy. How about agriculture?

So far, American manufacturing has had a hard time coming back on line. No matter how cheap the dollar gets, wages in the US are still far too high compared to countries like China, Brazil and India. And when it comes to and advantage in manufacturing technology, something emerging economies truly need, Germany has been more focused on that.

Something has to come along that will allow us to earn more than we spend if we’re ever going to pay off all of those trillions in debt. But what? A new technology like clean tech? Maybe but it’s going to take years, if not decades before we see a meaningful industry there. Besides, the Chinese already eating our lunch in solar, and there are precious few incentives to develop a domestic alternative energy industry.

This week there was a brief flash of hopefulness that should remind us all of America’s basic strength. Before the rise of American industry, the continental nation was a powerful agricultural exporter. Tobacco, cotton, grain and rice were once the building blocks of wealth in the U.S.

On Monday, futures contracts for corn and soybeans jumped 5% and 2% respectively in a single day, according to the Wall Street Journal, which went on to add these observations:

“The farm economy is coming out of the recession far faster than the general economy,” said Don Carson, a senior analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, New York. Overall, the USDA projects net farm income to climb 24% this year to $77.1 billion, the fourth highest ever. In September, farmers were being paid 62% more for hogs than a year earlier, and 32% more for milk.

Those kinds of jumps have helped Cargill, America’s largest private company and a centerpiece of the agricultural commodities industry, to post huge gains in profits, according to Agrimoney.com:

The group, the world’s largest farm commodities trader, said that earnings in the June-to-August quarter surged 68% to $883m. Revenues were 6% higher at $27.8bn.

While the performance was boosted in part by the contribution from Mosaic, the fertilizer giant of which Cargill owns more than 60%, the Minneapolis-based company also highlighted a “resurgence” at its commodity trading and processing operations prompted by the jump in crop market volatility.

Mosaic’s role in Cargill’s success is a reminder of the importance of fertilizer to agribusiness. That’s what is driving the takeover battle for Canadian fertilizer giant, Potash Corporation (POT). After a $38 billion offer from Australian mining concern BHP Billiton put the company in play, there are now fears that China will make a bigger bid for the company and divert production from the open market toward its own needs.

We haven’t had this kind of fight with the Chinese since they tried to buy Unocal a few years ago. That almost puts agriculture in the same league as the mother of all industrial bastions, the oil business.

Whatever the geopolitical ramifications of agriculture’s rise, there’s an economic upshot to all this fighting over fertilizer. More and more investors are looking toward agriculture as a way to earn solid returns. Former venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky reported earlier this month on a massive $130-170 million deal for farmland made by the Lawrence Group, the secretive Missouri family that has interests in banking and HVAC distribution. They see a strong future in farming even while others have been bailing out.

The Lawrences have been making a decade-long push into agriculture buying up Florida citrus groves to become one of the top producers in the state. They even made a big bid on US Sugar before losing to the State of Florida which wanted the land to reclaim the Everglades. The Lawrences were looking to add these holdings to substantial farming interests in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi where they grow cotton, soybeans, rice, wheat and corn.

Add it all up, as The Palm Beach Post has, and that puts the Lawrence Group firmly within the realm of billion-dollar operations. No one thinks of the next Warren Buffett coming out of the farm belt, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Just ponder a few of these numbers put together by The New York Times:

The estimates show that American farmers will ship $107.5 billion in agricultural products abroad in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. That is the second-highest amount ever, behind the record $115.3 billion in exports logged in 2008, when commodity prices soared as the global demand for agricultural products was helped by fast-growing economies in the developing world. Next year, exports are expected to total $113 billion. [...] Total net farm cash income for the current calendar year was estimated at $85 billion, a 23 percent increase from last year and well above the 10-year average of $72 billion.

That $85 billion sounds like a lot. But agriculture prices — and exports — are going to have jump a lot higher before we can count on farmers to earn us a way out of our debt overhang. Is that likely to happen? Probably not. But there are some smart folks like Jim Rogers who have been predicting this as a long-term trend.

And there’s evidence that he’s not so far off in predicting food shortages in the future that could drive much higher food prices. Such increases would make these numbers from the WSJ look tame indeed:

The USDA estimates farm exports climbed 11% during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, to $107.5 billion, and forecasts a further 5% rise in the new fiscal year.

The Federal Communications Commission calls it “bill shock”: the moment when you get your monthly cell phone bill and, gasp, it’s far more than you thought you had to pay based on the monthly plan. One in six of us has experienced this, according to theFCC’s survey, and much of it is due to overage or roaming charges.

Here are five ways to keep bill shock to a minimum – and actually save some money:

1. Call Customer Service

Call and ask for a better deal. It costs the companies far less to negotiate with you than to lose you as a customer all together. So cell phone companies have customer retention departments for the purpose of offering you perks, deals and discounts to keep you happy. Mention competitors’ deals and that you’ve been a longtime customer.

2. Monitor Usage

While the FCC is pushing to force cell phone companies to alert us before we exceed our monthly minutes, it’s still our responsibility to pay close attention. Otherwise, going over the allotted minutes in your cell plan can cost anywhere from 40 to 50 cents per minute. Reach out to your cell provider to get alerts either via text or by dialing (both free). Verizon users, for example, can call #MIN and get an update via text message. There are also a growing number of free iPhone apps for AT&T customers – like Cell Minute Tracker and OverMyMinutes – that help you track usage and monitor your monthly bill.

3. Try Friends & Family Plans

The term “friends and family” can include anyone you know – it could be a roommate, a boyfriend, girlfriend, or even an upstairs neighbor. If there’s someone you want to pair up with to qualify for the friends and family rate, the savings could be worth it. Just make sure it’s someone you trust: One of you will be on the hook for the entire bill. (You can try to get the bill split up, but the policy varies carrier.) What’s the payoff? At T-Mobile, an $60-per-month personal plan drops to $50 when you add another line: a $120 annual savings. Verizon and T-Mobile, meanwhile, have plans that let you add up to five phone numbers that you can connect to free of charge – regardless of the other person’s carrier, and even if it’s a land line.

4. Use In-Network or Mobile-to-Mobile Minutes

In a similar vein: Ask the people you talk with most who their providers are. If several of them share your carrier - be it AT&T, T-Mobile orVerizon – you could get free calls to them if you sign up for an “in-network” minutes plan. This can help avoid running over your minutes each month.

5. Go Prepaid

Pay-as-you-go phones typically cost 10 cents per minute plus a small daily access fee – say, $1 each day the phone is used. It’s like a cell phone with training wheels – and a smart option if you’re on a tight budget, or for parents who want to control their kids’ cell phone usage. Just make sure whatever plan you choose allows you to rollover any minutes you don’t use to the next month.