Washington – The leadership of the U.S. House Bi-Partisan
Privacy Caucus has written to Facebook, seeking additional information on how
some top applications on the social network are sharing members’ User IDs with
advertising and tracking firms, The Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. Reps.
Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) are asking Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg about the allegations, first reported by The Journal, that
"third-party applications gathered and transmitted personally identifiable
information about Facebook users and those users’ friends."
The lawmakers
want to know how many users have been affected by the privacy breach, when
Facebook became aware of it, and what the social network plans to do to deal
with it.
They have given Facebook until Oct. 27 to respond.
"The suggestion that the passing of a user ID to an
application, as described in Facebook’s privacy policy, constitutes a ‘breach’
is curious at best," a Facebook spokesperson told The Journal.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3766btr
(WSJ)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9ocez
(DMW previous coverage)
