BREAKING NEWS

Facebook acknowledges apps capturing user's private details

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

OCTOBER 19, 2010 03:50

NEW YORK — The latest Facebook privacy fiasco that broke on Monday shows that the world's largest online social hub is having a hard time putting this thorny issue behind it even as it continues to attract users and become indispensible to many of them.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that several popular Facebook applications have been transmitting users' personal identifying information to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. Facebook said it is working to fix the problem, and was quick to point out that the leaks were not intentional, but a consequence of basic Web mechanisms.

"In most cases, developers did not intend to pass this information, but did so because of the technical details of how browsers work," said Mike Vernal, a Facebook engineer, in a blog post Monday.

In a statement, Facebook said there is "no evidence that any personal information was misused or even collected as a result of this issue."

"Facebook has been assuring users for a very long time that their personal information will not be available to advertisers," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.

At issue are user IDs, the unique identifier tied to every person on Facebook. These IDs can be used to find users' names, gender and any information they've made visible to "everyone" on the Internet through their privacy settings.

"It's their entire friends' lists, their likes, their biographical information," Rotenberg said. "Facebook gets access to it and now it's leaking out to advertisers."

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