• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 9, 2012

Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) recently asked Facebook to explain why it obtained a patent for tracking people across the Web.

The social networking service's response, made public today, reiterates its prior statements to the media -- namely, that tech companies often obtain patents they don't intend to use. “The purpose of the filed patent is to protect our intellectual property,” Facebook wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “The practice of obtaining patents on inventions without launching products based on them is common in the technology industry, and no conclusions should be drawn about a company's practices, products or services from the patents it files.”

That statement has left the lawmakers clamoring for more information. “Facebook seems to be saying one thing and doing another,” Barton said in a statement. “In the company’s response, it talks a lot about how they don’t currently ‘track’ users online, but they just asked for a patent that would allow them to do just that. Why ask for something you don’t ever plan on using?”

Markey adds that Facebook's answer didn't address whether it “has considered using third-party tracking data to build user profiles or employs user-provided data to target advertising.”

The lawmakers also take the opportunity to mention -- again -- that Facebook refused to attend a briefing last month about teen privacy.

Separately, the Electronic Privacy Information Center continues to say it sees problems with Facebook's new Timeline -- a feature that makes old, previously buried, posts appear more prominently on users' profiles. “This level of exposure is vastly different from that of the old Facebook profile,” EPIC argues in a Dec. 27 letter to the FTC.

EPIC argues that the feature violates Facebook's promise to the FTC to refrain from changing users' default settings in ways that give people less privacy than before.

Facebook reportedly counters that Timeline hasn't changed users' privacy settings. What's more, the company argues, the tool gives people easier ways to control their information. “We think these innovations are things privacy advocates should be applauding,” Facebook reportedly said in a statement.