Do you really know what you've agreed to when you post photos or chat with your friends on a social-networking site? The fine folks at SmartMoney.com took a magnifying glass to the fine print on the privacy policies of YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Match.com, eHarmony and Google and found some results that may surprise you.

The Department of Revenue has launched a new Web site, suspectfraud.com, as part of a campaign to help prevent consumer fraud and give people an easy way to check if a business is registered. The site includes links to report other types of fraud, too.

Washington consumers filed 25,197 written complaints with the Attorney General’s Office in 2008 – the greatest number since 2002. The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division released its annual Top 20 list of consumer complaint categories today in conjunction with National Consumer Protection Week. Gripes about health care businesses and commercial banks moved into the top 10 and telecommunications maintained its stronghold as the industry to generate the most criticism. That seems like a good reason to re-post last year’s consumer protection week tip on how to select a wireless phone.

As part of our mission to protect the people of Washington, the Attorney General's Office provides informal mediation between consumers and businesses at no cost to either party. ... Last Friday, in conjunction with National Consumer Protection Week, we invited reporters to tour our Consumer Resource Center in Seattle. Take a sneak peak inside ...