Facebook has admitted that some of its applications have been transmitting user information to advertising companies.
The admission comes after the US newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, uncovered that the company was violating its privacy policy.
The paper found that popular applications were providing access to Facebook members' names and, in some cases, their friends' names, to companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online.
Facebook says it will introduce new technology to contain the breach, and will disable any applications that violate its terms.
"In most cases, developers did not intend to pass this information, but did so because of the technical details of how browsers work," Facebook engineer Mike Vernal said in a blog post.
"We are talking with our key partners and the broader web community about possible solutions."
Mr Vernal argued that press reports had exaggerated the implications of the situation and that getting user identification (UID) information did not provide access to private data without express permission.
"Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that even the inadvertent passing of UIDs is prevented and all applications are in compliance with our policy," Mr Vernal said.
Facebook is the world's most popular social network with about 500 million users, but it has been dogged by complaints about privacy protection.
Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, told reporters at a forum in Dubai on Sunday that privacy was the company's top concern and it would continue to give people more controls.
- AFP
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