facebook admits running campaign against google

Social networking giant Facebook has owned up to hiring a public relations consultancy to expose supposed flaws in Google's privacy practices, focusing on how consumers' private data is used on the search giant's social networking service, Social Circles.

According to various online reports that mushroomed late Thursday after USA Today first broke the news, Burson-Marsteller confirmed it was hired to run a smear campaign in which major news outlets would be sent pitches highlighting potential privacy and legal issues involving Social Circle. The social networking feature enables users to view information publicly available of other users who are connected to their Google Chat and Contacts, and includes data such as Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds and personal Web sites.

The bitter rivalry between the two Internet giants was never a secret, where both companies fought over how much user data each was willing to share with the other, for instance, by allowing Facebook users to automatically import their Gmail contacts.

In a move that further intensified the rivalry, Google last month launched a new social networking feature, "+1", which industry watchers noted was bore similarities with Facebook's "Like" button. The +1 function provides users a way to recommend search results to friends.

Before Microsoft's Skype buyout earlier this week, both companies were also reportedly contemplating a deal with the videoconferencing provider.

In defense of user privacy
In a pitch to a blogger sent last week with the subject "Google quietly launches sweeping violation of user privacy", Burson-Marsteller said: "Google is collecting, storing and mining millions of people's personal information from a number of different online services and sharing it without the knowledge, consent or control of the people involved... The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day, without their permission."

Late Thursday, Dan Lyons from The Daily Beast reported that a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the company had initiated the PR campaign because it believed Google's social networking efforts raised privacy concerns and that it was using Facebook data to support these initiatives.

According to ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET News, a Burson-Marsteller spokesperson said: "Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm we undertook an assignment for that client. The client requested its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media."

In a statement to CNET, the social networking site defended its move, noting that Google's Social Circles posed a problem for its users, but admitted it could have managed the situation differently. "No 'smear' campaign was authorized or intended. Instead, 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 service for inclusion in Google Social Circles--just as Facebook did not approve of use or collection for this purpose.

"The issues are serious and we should have presented them in a serious and transparent way," the spokesperson said.

Facebook itself had faced the wrath of privacy advocates last year when it introduced several changes to its privacy policies and to the way it handled user data. In February 2011, it said it was seeking user comments on new efforts to redesign and reorganize its privacy policy.