Facebook Games Accused of Privacy Breach
Farmville and other apps accused of sharing users' details
An investigation by the Wall Street Journal has found that many of the most popular Facebook apps have been transferring identifying information relating to users and their friends to numerous advertising and internet tracking companies, effectively giving out their names. Among the accused is the popular Facebook game Farmville.
According to the WSJ the issue has affected even users who have set their Facebook account privacy settings to the highest level available, as well as breaking Facebook's own rules regarding the sharing of information without consulting Facebook users first.
The WSJ goes on to explain that through its investigation it found that the 10 most popular Facebook apps which allow users to play games on the site or share common interests were sharing Facebook users' IDs with external companies. Among these is Zynga Game Network Inc.'s Farmville which has 59 million registered users. Three of the top ten apps (including Farmville) have also been sharing the personal information of Facebook users' friends in the same manner.
In what's sure to be a strange coincidence, many of the apps the Journal highlighted as operating this debatable practice were removed by Facebook and became unavailable after the findings came to light. Facebook has yet to confirm the reasons behind their unavailability. The site also prohibits makers of apps for the popular social networking site from sharing user data with external advertising and data companies, even when a user agrees to this.
A spokesman for Zynga said regarding the issue:
"Zynga has a strict policy of not passing personally identifiable information to any third parties. We look forward to working with Facebook to refine how web technologies work to keep people in control of their information."
Facebook, for its part, said that it's taking steps to "dramatically limit" the exposure of users' personal information. The spokesman also said that "A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application" but that knowledge of an ID "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook." He also said that the company will introduce technology designed to contain the problem highlighted by the WSJ.
There's more in the Wall Street Journal's article.
According to the WSJ the issue has affected even users who have set their Facebook account privacy settings to the highest level available, as well as breaking Facebook's own rules regarding the sharing of information without consulting Facebook users first.
The WSJ goes on to explain that through its investigation it found that the 10 most popular Facebook apps which allow users to play games on the site or share common interests were sharing Facebook users' IDs with external companies. Among these is Zynga Game Network Inc.'s Farmville which has 59 million registered users. Three of the top ten apps (including Farmville) have also been sharing the personal information of Facebook users' friends in the same manner.
In what's sure to be a strange coincidence, many of the apps the Journal highlighted as operating this debatable practice were removed by Facebook and became unavailable after the findings came to light. Facebook has yet to confirm the reasons behind their unavailability. The site also prohibits makers of apps for the popular social networking site from sharing user data with external advertising and data companies, even when a user agrees to this.
A spokesman for Zynga said regarding the issue:
"Zynga has a strict policy of not passing personally identifiable information to any third parties. We look forward to working with Facebook to refine how web technologies work to keep people in control of their information."
Facebook, for its part, said that it's taking steps to "dramatically limit" the exposure of users' personal information. The spokesman also said that "A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application" but that knowledge of an ID "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook." He also said that the company will introduce technology designed to contain the problem highlighted by the WSJ.
There's more in the Wall Street Journal's article.
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