Is Facebook Liking Posts on a Users' Behalf?

Facebook reported last week it now has over a billion users. Is the company now overstepping its boundaries with its new tactics?

According to a report on TechRadar.com, the organization has been shown to scan old posts and likes, sometimes of a private nature, in order to "Like" things on a user's behalf.

Users have reported "proved" that its been occuring, with one even placing a video of the action on YouTube. The video has since been removed from the popular video-posting website.

According to Gizmodo.com, employees proved that the likes do increase, but they say a Facebook spokesman said it is only to bump up an items likes, and that it won't per se show you, the user, liked it.

"Although messaging will auto-increase a page or link's Like count, it won't publicly associate you with that Like. In other words, your identity won't be exposed," Facebook reps said to Gizmodo.

Below is the statement made by a Facebook representative to TechRadar:

"Absolutely no private information has been exposed," the spokesperson said via email. "Each time a person Shares a URL to Facebook, including through messages, the number of Shares displayed on the social plugin for that website increases.

"Our systems parse the URL being shared in order to render the appropriate preview, and to also ensure that the message is not spam.

"These counts do not affect the privacy settings of content, and URLs shared through private messages are not attributed publicly with user profiles."

Facebook was also in the news this week for its first advertisement. The ad included only one video, which compared the social media company to a "chair" amongst other inanimate objects that bring communities together.

What do you think? Is this artificially bumping up a URL's "Likes" or is Facebook using its system to invade its users' privacy? Tell us below what you think.