NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Popular Facebook applications like FarmVille and FrontierVille are feeding users' data to marketers, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook "app" users, even those who set their profiles to the strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules and raises new questions about its ability to keep identifiable information secure.
An industry has arisen of companies that build databases on people to track them online, the Journal reported.
A Facebook spokesman Sunday said it is taking steps to "dramatically limit" exposure of personal information.
"A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application," the spokesman said, but that "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook". He added that the company will introduce technology to contain the problem.
"Apps" are pieces of software that let Facebook's 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. The Journal found all of the 10 most popular apps were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies.
UPI
