Image via CrunchBaseFacebook has just admitted that it was attempting to spreading rumors against its rival company, Google, for criticism over their privacy practices. A public-relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, had attempted several times to make USA Today and other media outlets to publish their written stories which speak low of Google's Social Circle, which is a feature of Gmail claimed to be violating the privacy of its users. This story against Google was being insisted be published by the former CNBC news anchor, Jim Goldman, and former political columnist, John Mercurio, who are both the employees of Burson-Marsteller. This sotry was so critical that it went on asserting that Social Circle is also in dilatation of the terms of Federal Trade Commission regulations.
Mercurio was actually the one who approached a former FTC Researcher, Christopher Soghoian, to publish this highly opinionated article under his own name. Whike USA Today also came forward and informed regarding Goldman, who appraoced them to write a story criticizing the practices of Google Inc.
Soghoian first went public earlier this month, as he disclosed the mails of Mercurio asking him to publish the anti-Google stores. Mercurio wrote to Soghoian saying that "I wanted to gauge your interest in authoring an op-ed this week for a top-tier media outlet" about this issue. He went on saying that "Google is at it again," asserting that "this time they are not only violating the personal privacy rights of millions of Americans, they are also infringing on the privacy rules and rights of hundreds of companies ranging from Yelp to Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn." Inquiring about which Soghoian asked about his client asking him to encourage such critical stories and Mercurio replied that I "can't disclose my client yet."
While a story published by The Daily Beast earlier this week, disclosed that this client backing Burson-Marsteller to spread these anti-Google stories was none other than Facebook. It went on asserting that it was confirmed by a Facebook spokesperson on Wednesday night. This Facebook spokesperson was kept anonymous.
Social Circle is a new venture of Google which allows the users to see the information of their friends, or friends of friends stored on different Google products. Google said that these "social connections are based on publicly available information and private connections." Google allows the users to connect their profiles with other sites, including Facebook, Flickr, Yelp or others.
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