Farmville creator Zynga faces privacy breach lawsuit

The maker of the immensely popular "Farmville" Facebook game is facing charges that it shared private information with advertisers. Facebook game and application maker Zynga.com is being accused of violating federal law by sending indentifying information to advertisers and Internet tracking companies, according to the The Wall Street Journal blog. Nancy Walther Graf, a resident of California, filed a lawsuit against Zynga, alleging that the game maker divulged personally identifiable information to third parties "for substantial profit." Graf insists that Zynga had violated federal as well as state laws. "These third parties like Zynga, if they’re going to get access to personally identifiable information in order to make these applications more useful to Facebook users, they’re going to have to be trusted with that information," said Graf's lawyer, Atty. Kassra Nassiri. However, Zynga denied the accusations. "We believe that the complaint is without merit and we intend to defend against it vigorously," the company told the Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement. The lawsuit follows in the wake of similar allegations against Facebook itself, which is also currently embroiled in privacy concerns. - GMANews.TV