by Maria Miaoulis

Created on: October 19, 2010

Facebook once again finds itself in the midst of controversy following a recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal. It seems that the social networking site’s latest privacy breach centers around one of its most popular features: software applications, better known to Facebook’s 500 million users as “apps.”

Apparently, the independent software developers behind such well-known games as FarmVille and Texas HoldEm Poker have been sharing identifying information with advertising and Internet tracking companies. Basically people’s names, and in some cases their friends’ names, have been transmitted to outside businesses. The Journal discovered that this was the case with all of the 10 most used apps including FrontierVille and the two aforementioned games, all developed by the Zynga Game Network Inc.

When a person creates a Facebook account, s/he is assigned an ID number that anyone can use to look up said person. However, it doesn’t matter how strict a user’s privacy settings are, a point of major contention in Facebook’s recent past. Even users who set their information to private could be at risk.

This security breach is part of a growing online trend that WSJ is inspecting. More and more corporations are compiling such tidbits into detailed databases that then make it easier to track people’s presence online. Some argue this practice is harmless because it is performed anonymously. Yet, when one online tracking company sends this data to dozens of other businesses, as the Journal found to be the case with RapLeaf Inc., then it becomes a whole different matter.

Although RapLeaf Inc. insists the leak was not done maliciously, Facebook says it has “taken steps… to significantly limit Rapleaf’s ability to use any Facebook-related data.” The social networking site also bars app developers from transmitting user information to outside advertising or data companies even if the user agrees. This follows an incident earlier this spring when the WSJ found Facebook sending user ID numbers to advertising companies when users clicked on certain ads.

To give users a better idea of what information is being accessed about them from these apps, Facebook created a control panel at the beginning of the month to clearly specify “basic information” such as name and ID number, or the like. However, the feature does not do the same with friends’ applications which could access the same information.

A Facebook spokesman said, “We have taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms.” So for users attempting to access their favorite apps during this time, don’t be surprised if you’re redirected to the home page or receive an error message instead of planting crops.

Please click here for the full Wall Street Journal article.

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