Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear Attempt on Google

Dan Lyons:

For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post. […]

But who was the mysterious unnamed client? While fingers pointed at Apple and Microsoft, The Daily Beast discovered that it’s a company nobody suspected — Facebook.

Not sure why no one would suspect Facebook. This seems utterly in character for Facebook.

(Side note: You may recall the blogger in question, Chris Soghoian, from when he was linked here at DF back in 2006 for his clever airport boarding pass security hack. And he’s the nephew of AppleScript godfather Sal Soghoian.)

★ Thursday, 12 May 2011