BURSON-MARSTELLER, one of the world's largest PR firms, attempted to get USA Today, the Washington Postand other highprofile US news outlets to write scaremongering stories about Google's privacy policies.

Facebook later confirmed it had hired Burson-Marsteller. The revelation – which will seriously damage relations between the two technology giants, already bitter rivals – came to light in leaked emails on Wednesday. Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, said the assignment was "not at all standard operating procedure" and was against company policies. Mr Cordasco confirmed that "the assignment" was now terminated and that Burson-Marsteller was no longer working with the social network. Facebook declined to comment. Suspicions in Silicon Valley were aroused earlier this week when two high-profile media figures began pitching anti-Google stories on behalf of their new employer, Burson-Marsteller. Mr Goldman and Mr Mercurio approached USA Todayand other outlets offering to ghost-write op-ed columns and other stories that raised privacy concerns about Google Social Circle, a social network feature based on Gmail. A prominent internet security blogger, Chris Soghoian, challenged the company's assertin that Social Circle was a privacy threat and accused them of "making amountain out of a molehill".– ( GuardianService).