慣犯Facebook誹謗谷歌侵犯隱私

????Facebook公司今年出現了一長串失誤，但在公關領域的慘敗或許是該公司最大的敗筆。5月份，這家社交網絡雇傭了行事激進的博雅公關公司（Burson-Marsteller），散播關于谷歌公司（Google）的負面新聞。具體來說，Facebook希望傳播谷歌公司侵犯用戶隱私的事件——這種事Facebook自己就是個中老手。

????這是一場經典的抹黑運動，記者丹?里昂斯率先報道了此事。事件曝光后，Facebook承認，它的確雇傭了博雅公司來宣傳谷歌在其不事張揚的“社交圈子（Social Circles）”功能中使用個人數據的行為，但Facebook聲稱它對這種行為的擔憂合情合理（一個月后，這個功能正式成為了谷歌的一部分，這不啻為對Facebook的正面回擊）。

????最終，Facebook并沒有坦白事情的真相——它這樣做是為了抹黑其最大的競爭對手，但似乎沒有人特別在意谷歌涉嫌侵犯隱私的行為。這次草率馬虎的打擊行動，反倒讓Facebook顏面掃地。——丹尼爾?羅伯茨

Facebook smears Google's privacy policy

????This year's PR fiasco ranks near the top of Facebook's long list of missteps. In May, the social network hired aggressive PR firm Burson-Marsteller to plant negative pieces about Google. Specifically, Facebook wanted to seed stories about Google invading its users' privacy -- something Facebook has plenty of experience with itself.

????It was a classic smear campaign, and reporter Dan Lyons blew the whistle on it. Dragged into the light, Facebook admitted hiring Burson to publicize what it claimed were its very legitimate concerns about Google's use of personal data in its under-the-radar "Social Circles" feature. (One month later, that feature became part of Google , the company's frontal assault on Facebook.)

????In the end, Facebook didn't own up to the real story -- that it attempted to play dirty with its biggest competitor -- and no one much cared about Google's alleged privacy violations. The story instead became Facebook's sloppy, shady hit job. -- Daniel Roberts