Consumer Confidential: Sentiment, streets, Star Trek

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Here’s your finish-line-Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Consumer sentiment took a little tumble this month as the realization set in among many that jobs may not be a big factor in the economic recovery, at least not right away. Optimism among consumers is now at the weakest level in three months. Seems to me, though, that consumers have been pretty snippy for a long time now, so this isn’t going to change the economic landscape much.

-- They take their privacy seriously in Switzerland. The country’s privacy watchdog says he’ll drag Google to court to make the Web giant change how it’s photographing streets as part of grand plans to map the world. Swiss authorities want to ensure that all faces of Swiss folk are obscured, and that nobody gets a glimpse of private areas, such as walled gardens. Google says it’ll fight for its right to take pictures of stuff, whether you like it or not.

-- When makers of the new ‘Star Trek Online’ video game started working out the concept of the huge, multi-player setting, they originally didn’t want to include allowing players to sit in Capt. Kirk’s chair on the bridge of the Enterprise. In fact, they figured they wouldn’t include the bridge of any starships. Happily, cooler heads prevailed, and the game makers now say that, yes, you can Kirk out as much as you want. Beam me up.

-- David Lazarus