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MySpace Leaks User Data, Too

But, apparently, it's not quite as bad as Facebook

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 23, 2010 9:03 AM CDT

(Newser) – Poor MySpace: Even in a privacy flap, it has a hard time competing with Facebook. In the wake of the latest Facebook privacy uproar—some apps on the social networking site have been leaking user data—comes news that MySpace has similar problems. Both MySpace itself as well as several popular applications have been leaking identifying information to outside advertisers, the Wall Street Journal reports, but these leaks are apparently more limited than the Facebook leaks.

MySpace user IDs are being leaked, meaning that advertisers can potentially see information like name, photographs, location, gender, and age on a person’s MySpace profile. However, unlike Facebook, MySpace does not require a person to use a real name or make their gender or country public, and the company says that leaking user IDs only allows access to information a person has already made public. Even so, it has pledged to stop sending user IDs when a person clicks on an ad. Click here to see the fallout from the similar Facebook fiasco.

Et tu, MySpace?
Et tu, MySpace?   (Graphic: Business Wire)
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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
ShortSchoolBus
Oct 23, 2010 10:12 AM CDT
As I said before, I found that MySpace was posting user's telephone numbers when the users updated their activity stream via cell phone. Yeah, it was in the HTML for the webapge. Then the phone numbers became indexed on Google so when you did a search for a phone number, that number's MySpace profile would come up. So realistically, a MySpace user could be stalked if they posted to their activity stream with his/her phone. I had someone accidentally send me a text, so I Googled the phone number and found that person's MySpace profile, and from there, a trove of personal information.
 

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