New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) Facebook has accused Signal of lying, after the encrypted messaging app challenged the user privacy policies of Facebook by sharing a series of ads on Instagram to showcase how the social network collects information from users and displays ads basis of those private details.

Facebook said that Signal never tried to actually run the transparent Instagram ads, reports ZDNet.

"This is a stunt by Signal, who never even tried to actually run these ads -- and we didn't shut down their ad account for trying to do so," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report on Wednesday.

"If Signal had tried to run the ads, a couple of them would have been rejected because our advertising policies prohibit ads that assert that you have a specific medical condition or sexual orientation, as Signal should know. But of course, running the ads was never their goal -- it was about getting publicity."

Signal responded, saying the company absolutely did try to run the adds which were "rejected, and Facebook disabled our ad account."

Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne also took to Twitter and wrote: "The ads themselves were never rejected as they were never set by Signal to run. The ad account has been available since early March, and the ads that don't violate our policies could have run since then".

"The ads themselves were never rejected as they were never set by Signal to run. The ad account has been available since early March, and the ads that don't violate our policies could have run since then," Osborne added.

Signal earlier claimed that companies like Facebook aren't building technology for you but for your data.

"They collect everything they can from FB, Instagram, and WhatsApp in order to sell visibility into people and their lives," Signal said in a blog post.

Both Signal and Telegram saw a significant uptake in new users as Facebook-owned WhatsApp's new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy triggered a fresh privacy debate.

--IANS na/