BaltTech: Facebook's Careless Whispers Against Google: Reports - Technology news: Digital tech, innovation, Apple and Microsoft news from reporter Gus Sentementes

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May 12, 2011

Facebook's Careless Whispers Against Google: Reports

What Would George Michael Think?

The Daily Beast and USA Today report on the unmasking of Facebook as the company that hired a huge PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, to spread exaggerated tales about Google infringing on users' privacy.

A nasty whisper campaign? No surprise there. But Burson-Marsteller, your two PR guys were careless about it.

Blogger Chris Soghoian posted the email exchange he had with Burson-Marsteller for all to see.

Kudos to Chris and others in the media for not being used as PR pawns.

I wonder if Facebook feels guilty about doing this -- or just foolish for getting caught. Will it ever dance again, as George Michael sings in the chorus:

I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool

UPDATE:Not only do I have "Careless Whisper" in my head, my editor also pointed to this awesome Youtube vid I had never seen before:

This is an archived version of the technology blog. For updated coverage, see the current baltTech location: baltimoresun.com/balttech

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: *NEWS*, Big Ideas, Media

Comments

Gus, I've had that song stuck in my head for about 2 weeks since my brother introduced me to it. I had to share!

Posted by: Gus' editor | May 12, 2011 12:25 PM

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About Gus G. Sentementes

Gus G. Sentementes (@gussent on Twitter) has been writing for The Baltimore Sun since 2000. He's covered real estate, business, prisons, and suburban and Baltimore City crime and cops. He was one of the first reporters at The Sun to use multimedia tools and Web applications -- a video camera, an iPhone -- to cover breaking news. He hopes to cover Maryland geeks and the gadgets and Web sites they build, and learn -- and share -- something new every day.

Gus has a wife, a young daughter and two feuding cats. They live in Northeast Baltimore.

This is an archived version of the technology blog. For updated coverage, see the current baltTech location: baltimoresun.com/balttech

Follow @gussent on Twitter