Both Facebook and PR firm Burson-Marsteller—the two companies caught right in the middle of
the unfortunately titled "Googlegate" episode from last week—have issued statements describing their involvement in the situation. According to both companies, the plan to pitch articles to newspapers describing Google's alleged privacy violations wasn't intended to be a negative campaign against the company.
Yet, Burson-Marsteller apparently hasn't learned its lesson from the influx of criticism surrounding its involvement in the mess. The company has since been caught
deleting criticism from Facebook users posting on the company's official Facebook page.
First, Facebook's statement:
"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 services for inclusion in Google Social Circles—just as Facebook did not approve of use or collection for this purpose," said a Facebook representative to
USA Today.
Via
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385394,00.asp
