The Wall Street Journal has recently accused Facebook of violating their own privacy policy, after an article published Monday, Oct. 18. said that applications were sending out individual Facebook ID’s to ad agencies.

According to the article, each member of Facebook has an individual ID that lets applications identify them while playing games. The top offender for breaching the policy is Internet gaming giant Zynga. Zynga produces Farmville and Frontierville, games that over 50 million Americans use daily. The Wall Street Journal is accusing Zynga of sending ID’s to ad agencies. These ID’s allow access to personal information like a person’s birthday, city and relationship status, even if the person’s profile is set on private. The application LOLapps has been completely removed from Facebook, because of their privacy issues. Facebook has already been hit with several lawsuits, all dealing with the breach of privacy.

Facebook’s newest application, Facebook Places, has also caused controversy recently. Facebook Places allows you to check in whenever you go somewhere new. This is shared with your entire friend list. Every person’s Facebook has been automatically set so that Facebook Places is turned on. If someone does not want to use Facebook Places, he or she has to manually turn it off themselves. Friends can check people in places, so even if you have Facebook Places turned off, someone can still see where you are.

Amidst these lawsuits, Facebook has taken action and filed their own lawsuits against the application creators who broke the Facebook privacy policy. Facebook filed lawsuits against Steven Richter, Jason Swan and Max Bounty Inc. for breaking a number of California laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the CAN-SPAM Act. “Our technical systems have always been complemented by strong policy enforcement,” Facebook said in response to The Wall Street Journal article. “We will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information.” Facebook said that they are as dedicated as ever to the privacy of their users.

The top 10 ways to protect yourself online

1. Do not accept random friend requests on social networking sites. Make sure you know someone before you accept them. You may think it is okay to add someone just because they go to Rockhurst, but this person’s account could have been hacked or could be fake.

2. Read the network’s privacy policy. Just because it is called a privacy policy does not mean it will protect you. Facebook has recently been accused of violating their own privacy policy due to some applications giving off personal information to Internet tracking agencies

3. Make your passwords hard to figure out. Internet tracking companies can easily get access to your date of birth, school and other information that is usually used as a password. Instead, use numbers and figures so the coding is harder to break. If companies figure your password out, they can hack your account and send spam to your friends.

4. Log out before visiting another website. By doing this, you are potentially stopping trackers from having easy access to your social networking accounts.

5.Retype URLs into the browser. Clicking on ads directly from a website almost always leads to spam. Make sure to never click a link that says you have won a free product – this is always spam.

6. Have an email only for social networking. This email can be simple and basic. If online tracker gets a hold of this email and spam it, you can always delete it and start over fresh. Your friends and family all know your regular email and this way you are sure to stay spam-free.

7. Do not forward chain emails. Anytime you get an email that says to add your name on here or to forward to 10 friends, the email is most likely sent by an Internet tracking company. The company gets a copy each time the email is forwarded and they automatically have access to thousands of emails

8. Never give any bank account information out online. This is the top way for online predators to steal your identity. Make sure to never access your bank account on a public wifi. Online predators can hack into the wifi system and see your passwords.

9. Install the latest anti-spyware software installed on your computer. This is a simple, easy way to prevent spam from reaching your computer

10. Clear your cache every two weeks. Every time you get off the Internet, all your previous destinations are saved in the cache. Although having your websites available makes loading the sites later easier, it also is easier for online tracking companies to see what websites you were on. These can give off personal information that you may not want other people to know.