Despite Applying Facebook's Strictest Privacy Settings, Popular Facebook Apps Transmit Personal Information to Advertising and Data Collection Firms

"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, reports Emily Steel and Geofrey A. Fowler in Facebook in Privacy Breach. How? By way of many of the most popular independently created apps on the site. The WSJ's Steel and Fowler report that "[t]he apps reviewed by the Journal were sending Facebook ID numbers to at least 25 advertising and data firms, several of which build profiles of Internet users by tracking their online activities. ... The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings." [JH]