As Dell rushes to plant flags in the IT services market, CIOs who have a relationship with SonicWall, Clerity, Wyse, Make Technology or AppAssure might be hesitating. After all, Dell undoubtedly will guarantee that those companies’ engineers have a 365-day lock-in period; but there is certainly a risk of brain drain if those engineers take flight as soon as they’re legally able to jump Dell’s corporate ship. The funny thing about people who work for smaller IT shops and startups is that they tend to treasure their indie street cred and might roll their eyes when handed a Dell polo shirt at a massive company picnic.

The good news for Dell is that the mergers are absolutely a good thing for Dell clients. They get access to a broader spectrum of technologies and the vendor is standing strong against the unceasing tide of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Cisco techno-diversity. However, CIOs who are focused on preserving customer and vendor relations might find themselves considering a move to a different provider. For instance, when Dell scooped up SonicWall, so many of SonicWall’s customers and partners switched customer and vendor relations to other data protection providers that Dell pleaded with those groups to give Dell a chance.

What do you think? Does the rush of Dell acquisitions concern you as a current Dell customer or perhaps a customer of one of the companies Dell has acquired? Should current customers be concerned about their existing and future vendor relations? Sound out in the comments, and let’s discuss the pros and cons of the Dell acquisitions sweeps week.

Now, Google has agreed to support the Do-Not-Track button and will add it to Chrome within nine months. You may remember that the Federal Trade Commission called for the adoption of a Do-Not-Track button on Web browsers two years ago. In theory, it would allow consumers more autonomy in sharing their own personal privacy with third parties. Nevertheless, when Firefox and Internet Explorer added Do-Not-Track buttons, users were still tracked by advertisers and companies that hadn’t agreed to honor the arrangement. What is it they say about good intentions?

Meanwhile, California is attempting to shut down data privacy leaks via mobile applications. The state has reached an agreement with Google, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com, Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion — one that it hopes will protect smartphone users from further privacy breaches like the Path and Google debacles uncovered earlier this month.

When it comes to the Internet and government intervention, we have to be mindful of the careful dance around precedent. We applaud when the U.S. government tries to protect us from data poachers with a privacy bill of rights, but just a month ago we were up in arms about the Stop Online Piracy Act. So, which is it going to be? Do we want the government regulating the Internet or don’t we? As you well know, I tend to have a cold, black heart that’s filled to the brim with pessimism about Internet privacy; the Do-Not-Track button and the White House’s privacy bill of rights feel to me like security theatre.

What do you think? Will the Do-Not-Track button make a difference in upholding consumer data privacy? Is it the role of government to regulate the Internet? The comments are waiting to hear from you.