Facebook
once again caught leaking users personal info
by
Joseph
Ernest October 18, 2010
Newscast
Media --The social network giant Facebook
has been caught letting its users personal info slip into the hands of
advertising and data firms again -- however, Facebook says it wasn't on purpose.
The names of people who use some of the website's most popular applications, such as Farmville and Texas HoldEm Poker, were "transmitted" to outside companies by those apps via the User ID, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
"A
Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet
browser or by an application," a Facebook spokesman told the newspaper.
According
to the Wall Street Journal, the
Facebook User ID is a number attached to each individual, and can
reveal that person's name, and even the names of "friends," regardless
of that person's privacy settings.
The Facebook spokesman stressed, however, that the ID itself "does not permit access to anyone's private information."
"This
is an even more complicated technical challenge than a similar issue we
successfully addressed last spring on Facebook.com," the Facebook
spokesman told the Journal, "but one that we are committed to
addressing."
The social media website contends it is making efforts to "dramatically limit" the leaking of users’ personal information. Add
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