100 years ago, stereoscopic photos were a bit of a novelty, showing up in coin-operated viewers that forced your eyes to see the paired pictures in 3D. Some 40,000 of those snapshots (whose copyrights have expired) are now in the New York Public Library archives. Earlier this week, NYPL Labs debuted its Stereogranimator tool that lets you resurrect the old 3D effect in animated GIFs or red and blue 3D anaglyphs.

The New York Times reports the idea was originally born in the brain of San Francisco artist and writer Joshua Heineman, who found the images in the NYPL archives and recognized them as stereographs. He spent hours looking “behind” hundreds of dual images to see them in 3D before he had the idea to simulate the effect with an animated GIF. (You can try out both methods below, but if you can get the side-by-side style to work, the effect is much better.) Heineman’s activities eventually caught the library’s attention, prompting creation of the tool now available to everyone.

The government seems to be on high-alert regarding Google’s privacy practices. The company only just announced its new simplified privacy policy on sharing your data across all its services, and lawmakers have responded with a long list of questions. In a letter to Larry Page, eight members of Congress asked if users will be able to opt-out of the new data sharing policy, and how they can easily exercise such an option if it exists at all. The letter also asks if teenagers and children will receive special privacy protection, followed by numerous inquiries about collection, sharing, archiving, and ensuring the security of gathered information.

Google has until February 16, 2012 to deliver a satisfactory response to Congress, but it’s already addressing concerns about some changes through its Public Policy Blog. The post clarifies that Google has already been using data to improve the user experience for a long time, and the new policy simply makes that clear. “We’re not collecting more data about you,” the company said, adding that you still have the option to turn off chat and search history, “go incognito,” or tailor ads to your interest.

There have also been fears that sensitive government and enterprise data would be put at risk under the new system. However, in a statement to The Next Web, Google said that the new privacy policy doesn’t change how it handles enterprise and government data. Management of that information is controlled by “contractual agreements, which have always superseded Google’s privacy policy.”

The EU and 22 of its member nations signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) today. Despite its name, ACTA covers copyright violations and digital piracy as well as knock-off handbags and other counterfeit goods. It’s been accused of being undemocratic because negotiations were originally conducted in secret — although a full text of the treaty is available now online. Anonymous and others even compare it to SOPA, claiming that vague language could allow ISPs to be held criminally liable for aiding in mass copyright infringement.

The treaty was first signed in Tokyo on October 1, 2011 by the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, and Morocco, and has created some protest among internet rights groups and even public officials. A French member of the European Parliament who was assigned with examining ACTA quit that responsibility today, citing unprecedented maneuvers by Parliament to accelerate passage of the agreement before the public became aware of it. On the other hand, European Commission spokesperson Ryan Heath has been tweeting “the facts” about ACTA in an effort to clear up misconceptions among the public. We’ll take a closer look at the text to see what the treaty actually does soon. The European Parliament will vote to ratify the treaty in June after a number of committees give their opinions on the agreement.

Mozy has released a public beta version of Stash, a complement to the company’s online backup offerings that automatically syncs files between computers, much like Dropbox. All backed up and “stashed” files are available online or through the iOS and Android apps. Whereas online backups happen on a schedule, files stored in your local Stash folder are synced in real time. The main difference from Dropbox is that there’s currently no way to publicly share files, but that feature is coming later this year.

Those with a limited-storage paid account can join the beta and use any empty space for Stash, but everyone else will have to sign up for a free 2GB account. Paid subscribers who sign up for the public beta will get to keep Stash as part of their service at no extra charge. Although the change over Mozy’s previous services is slight, it’s good to see the company take the logical step and augment online backup with instant syncing under a single account.