Seeger Weiss Investigates the Facebook Online Privacy Breach
October 18, 2010
Seeger Weiss is investigating claims associated with the Facebook online privacy breach. Recently, it was revealed that many of the most popular applications on Facebook have been transmitting identifying information to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.
Facebook has transmitted users' “Facebook ID,” a number assigned to everyone on the site. A Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profile: anyone can use an ID number to look up a person's name by simply Googling it, even if that person has set that information as private. The Facebook ID also reveals information some users have set to share with "everyone," including age, residence, occupation and photos.
Applications, or "apps" are pieces of software that let Facebook's 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. All of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies. The apps include Zynga Game Network Inc.'s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user's friends to outside companies. Most apps aren't made by Facebook, but by independent software developers.
The applications transmitting Facebook IDs may have breached their own privacy policies, as well as industry standards, which say sites shouldn't share and advertisers shouldn't collect personally identifiable information without users' permission. Zynga, for example, says in its privacy policy that it "does not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to third-party advertising companies."
Tens of millions of Facebook application users are affected.
Seeger Weiss LLP is investigating claims associated with the Facebook online privacy breach. If you or someone you know has installed an application to their Facebook page and suspect your data has been mined, please contact us. An experienced attorney with Seeger Weiss LLP will assist you in evaluating your claim. Attorney consultations incur no obligation on your part and all initial consultations are free of charge. Seeger Weiss LLP has office locations in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Oklahoma and California.
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