Google Confirms Facebook Violation, No Personal Data Stored

Earlier this week I reported that applications were secretly transferring personal data to Google via their AdWords system and this was a clear violation of Facebook’s terms of service (TOS). It turns out that no personal data was being stored but some of the AdWords integration was in violation of Facebook’s TOS. Eric Eldon received a response from a Google spokesperson:

“We recently allowed some application partners to send us additional keywords to improve ad performance. A limited number of the keywords sent to Google did not comply with the developerâ€™s agreement with Facebook. When we realized this conflict, we asked the partners to discontinue sending those keywords. We are no longer using those keywords. No personally identifiable information was exchanged between Google and the application developers.”

The fact that this information was leaking is definitely a problem with the Facebook platform. While it is a violation to store personally identifiable information of users that install your application, there is ultimately nothing you preventing from doing so. Additionally, as this case revealed, personal information could have theoreticallyÂ leaked out even though it wasn’t exchanged in this instance. While I’m confident that Google was not intending to store the personally identifiable information, the bottom line is that the data was leaking out. This case helps reveal the issue but it definitely doesn’t appear to be an intentional violation by either the application developers or Google.

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7453 Comments2007-11-17+20%3A28%3A58Nick+O%27Neill »

[...] Google Confirms Facebook Violation, No Personal Data Stored – The Unofficial Facebook Blog [...]

Pingback by Google Confirms Facebook Violation, No Personal Data Stored - The Unofficial Facebook Blog | Search Engine Monkeying — November 20, 2007 @ 9:54 am
[...] Google heeft toegegeven dat het de privÃ©gegevens van Facebook-bezoekers gebruikt – misbruikt? – heeft om zijn eigen advertentiesysteem Adwords te boosten. Hiermee heeft het de gebruikersovereenkomst van Facebook met voeten getreden. Het bericht stond te lezen op allfacebook. [...]

Pingback by Facebook data misbruikt door Google | — November 22, 2007 @ 11:46 am
[...] Fuente: Allfacebook [...]

Pingback by Google extrajo informaciÃ³n privada de Facebook para usar en AdWords - elWebmaster.com — November 23, 2007 @ 10:35 am

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[...] Google Confirms Facebook Violation, No Personal Data Stored – The Unofficial Facebook Blog [...]

Pingback by Google Confirms Facebook Violation, No Personal Data Stored - The Unofficial Facebook Blog | Search Engine Monkeying — November 20, 2007 @ 9:54 am

[...] Google heeft toegegeven dat het de privÃ©gegevens van Facebook-bezoekers gebruikt – misbruikt? – heeft om zijn eigen advertentiesysteem Adwords te boosten. Hiermee heeft het de gebruikersovereenkomst van Facebook met voeten getreden. Het bericht stond te lezen op allfacebook. [...]

Pingback by Facebook data misbruikt door Google | — November 22, 2007 @ 11:46 am

[...] Fuente: Allfacebook [...]

Pingback by Google extrajo informaciÃ³n privada de Facebook para usar en AdWords - elWebmaster.com — November 23, 2007 @ 10:35 am