Facebook exposed in Google smear campaign

The social network has admitted that it hired a PR firm to plant anti-Google stories related to user privacy.

The details came to light when one blogger approached by PR firm Burson-Marsteller published the e-mail exchange.

Burson had been touting stories on behalf of an unnamed client about the Google service Social Circle.

Blogger Chris Soghain did not want to pursue the story and later released the e-mails he had exchanged with Burson.

When the e-mails were published there was a mass of rumours about who the client could be, with Microsoft and Apple in the frame.

Both Facebook and Google declined to comment further on the story.

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