Facebook Games, Leaking User ID's & Data

[Atrayo]

Hi Guys,

I caught wind of another interesting article over at "Venture Beat" which covers a story that broke by "The Wall Street Journal".

Article Link.

Originally Posted by Venture Beat

The Wall Street Journal reported that its investigation of Facebook apps found that many of the most popular titles have been transmitting identifying user information to dozens of advertising and internet tracking companies.

They include games from Zynga, including its FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille titles. Facebook assigns a Facebook ID number to every user on the site. Anyone can use that ID number to look up a person’s name, using a standard web browser, even if that person has set his or her info to be private. The Journal said the apps reviewed by its reporters were sending Facebook ID numbers to at least 25 ad and data-tracking firms. One firm, RapLeaf, had linked Facebook user ID info from the apps to its own database of internet users, which it sells. RapLeaf transmitted the Facebook IDs it obtained to a dozen other firms.

Originally Posted by Wall Street Journal

Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.

Here is the Link to the "Wall Street Journal" artile which io quoted from above.


It seems Facebook is right now under damage control initiatives according to this article above. Where they provide a follow-up comment from Facebook themselves mentioning that the user ID and data leaks occurred due to "URL Referrers".

Let's see how this turns out in the news.

[Vonder]

I can't say I'm surprised. The whole point behind social networking sites is data mining, which is why whether I have my privacy settings maxed or not, I don't put any sensitive data up.

[Ned]

I'm not surprised either. It still amazes me how much personal info people are willing to add to these kind of sites.