In a move aimed squarely at Facebook, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) says it will no longer allow the social network giant to tap into information from its Gmail email service. Instead, the search firm says it will only share user information with sites that reciprocate on data sharing.

In the past, a Facebook user could grant permission to Facebook to sieve through their Gmail contacts to see which of their friends also have a Facebook account. This feature is possible because Google shares contact information from Gmail, and helps Facebook to grow. On its part though, Facebook doesn't allow its users to export their contacts to other sites or services.

Google cast additional light on its move in an official statement, "We have a data liberation engineering team dedicated to building import and export tools for users. We are not alone. Many other sites allow users to import and export their information, including contacts, quickly and easily. But sites that do not, such as Facebook, leave users in a data dead end."  Allaying fears that this move will affect startups, a source allegedly close to the search giant gave the assurance that "the rule will be enforced on a case-by-case basis," and the startups do not have to worry about having to write import and export APIs.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at BBC News
- check out this article at The Wall Street Journal
- check out this article at Ars Technica

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