Facebook has admitted hiring a public relations firm to highlight supposed flaws in Google's privacy practices, but denies embarking upon a smear campaign against the search giant.
The social network site has faced a series of negative headlines over privacy in the past and hired PR firm Burson-Marstellar to focus attention on the use of consumers' personal information on Google Social Circles, one of Google's lesser known social networking features.
The revelation highlights the growing rivalry between Google, the world's leading web search business, and Facebook, the largest social networking site with over a half a billion users globally.
Facebook and Google's skirmish shows how consumer privacy, particularly around sensitive data, could be a ticking time bomb for internet companies who manage an increasing amount of information about their users.
Burson-Marstellar contacted several journalists and privacy experts without revealing the identity of its client. Facebook said it should have presented the issues in a "serious and transparent" way.
"We wanted third parties to verify that people did not approve of the collection and use of information from their accounts on Facebook and other services for inclusion in Google Social Circles," the company said in a statement. "Facebook did not approve of use or collection for this purpose." Google was not immediately available for comment.
Both Google and Facebook offer free access services for the most part which rely on their users' trust. That trust has helped Google build a business with a market value of $172 billion, while Facebook has been valued at more than $70 billion by private investors in recent weeks.
Sony has spent several weeks dealing with a major privacy problem after its online system was hacked compromising the personal data of more than 100 million online video game users and account holders.
Source Article:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/facebook...
The social network site has faced a series of negative headlines over privacy in the past and hired PR firm Burson-Marstellar to focus attention on the use of consumers' personal information on Google Social Circles, one of Google's lesser known social networking features.
The revelation highlights the growing rivalry between Google, the world's leading web search business, and Facebook, the largest social networking site with over a half a billion users globally.
Facebook and Google's skirmish shows how consumer privacy, particularly around sensitive data, could be a ticking time bomb for internet companies who manage an increasing amount of information about their users.
Burson-Marstellar contacted several journalists and privacy experts without revealing the identity of its client. Facebook said it should have presented the issues in a "serious and transparent" way.
"We wanted third parties to verify that people did not approve of the collection and use of information from their accounts on Facebook and other services for inclusion in Google Social Circles," the company said in a statement. "Facebook did not approve of use or collection for this purpose." Google was not immediately available for comment.
Both Google and Facebook offer free access services for the most part which rely on their users' trust. That trust has helped Google build a business with a market value of $172 billion, while Facebook has been valued at more than $70 billion by private investors in recent weeks.
Sony has spent several weeks dealing with a major privacy problem after its online system was hacked compromising the personal data of more than 100 million online video game users and account holders.
Source Article:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/facebook...