MySpace apps send user IDs to advertisers

In the wake of the discovery that some third party Facebook applications transmit users’ ID to ad agencies and Internet tracking companies, The Wall Street Journal has revealed that MySpace and some of the game applications on it are doing exactly the same thing.

This is not the first time MySpace has been found “oversharing” – at the time, they said they were working on a method to obfuscate the ID information sent to ad agencies via “HTTP referrers”.

An extenuating circumstance is the fact that – unlike Facebook – MySpace doesn’t require of or encourage its users to make an account in their real name, so knowing a user ID doesn’t immediately mean that usable information can be harvested. On the other hand, many users simply don’t think of creating an online persona to protect their privacy.

Three popular MySpace applications – TagMe, GreenSpot and RockYou Pets – have been found transmitting the information, a thing that is against the rules set by the social network.

“It has recently come to our attention that several third-party app developers may have violated these terms and we are taking appropriate action against those developers,” a MySpace spokesman said.