A potentially severe privacy breach affecting hundreds of thousands of Facebook users has shaken the world's largest and most popular social networking website.
Some of the most widely used Facebook applications- which include Zynga's famous game FarmVille played by 56 million users- have been transferring users' private information to a number of Internet tracking and advertising companies, a report by The Wall Street Journal said.
A statement issued by Facebook described the report as "exaggerated"and claimed that there is "no evidence that any personal information was misused or even collected."
The online social networking giant says that immediate action has been taken to block applications that breached its privacy policy. (The majority of applications were developed by independent software firms, not Facebook)
Facebook is also considering technical solutions to this issue and is expected to reveal details within a few days.
Zynga declined to comment on the matter.
The issue has to do with user IDs, which is the unique identity that Facebook assigns to each of its its member. These IDs can be used in "referrers" which websites transmit to other websites to inform them about the origins of the user, according to the Journal.
Legal experts and privacy advocates believe that the issue is more related to an online design flaw than any attempts by Facebook to publicize user data. Still, the issue may cause doubts in the minds of the users about the safety of their personal information on Facebook.
Alan Chapell, a lawyer specializing in online privacy, said that if users stop trusting Facebook with their information, they won't use the website as much.
