Business / Facebook Leak Of 6 Million Users May Be More Serious Than Anticipated!

Facebook Leak Of 6 Million Users May Be More Serious Than Anticipated!

Business Jun 29, 2013

by Anokhi Admin

A Facebook “bug” leaked the private personal contact information of 6 million Facebook users, and this disaster appears to be worse than they first thought.

Social networking sites have always been controversial in the realm of public vs private access, and typically there are measures to take to avoid any unwanted viewing of the personal information one puts up onto Facebook, Twitter etc. However, this time around, Facebook didn’t give anyone the possibility to hide their personal information.

Facebook supposedly underreported how much information leaked to make the screw up seem less disastrous. The bug allowed those who downloaded the history of their Facebook accounts through “Download Your Information” tool to accidently access some of their friends’ email addresses and contact information such as phone numbers, which were never exposed or shared on their Facebook page in the first place.

Though Facebook did take pains to email all 6 million people affected, the social network posted its announcement about the data leak just before 5 p.m. ET on a Friday afternoon — on a Facebook page belonging to the company’s security team, rather than its main account, and with a deceptively boring title, ”Important Message from Facebook’s White Hat Program.”

As reporter in Daily Caller, researchers wrote “We compared Facebook email notification data to our test case data. In one case, they stated [one] additional email address was disclosed, though 4 pieces of data were actually disclosed. For another individual, they only told him about 3 out of 7 pieces of data were disclosed."

Although Facebook states that no other info about their users was shown, the red flags are already causing great skepticism of what is truthful and what isn’t. Researches also asked what it means for the non-Facebook users who had their information also disclosed. The answer was simple- those users were not contacted and the information which was exposed was not reported.

The biggest question most users and non-users have is how is this information-which has never been publicly exposed on a social networking site –being accessed and what information can Facebook collect?

This leak began in 2012 and exposed Facebook’s massive data base of personal information which had been collected from its 1.1 billion users. The scary thing is, much of the information leaked was not intentionally provided to Facebook by its users. Much of the information collected was in part by Facebook’s Find Friends feature, part of an app for mobile devices, according to Mashable. Through the app, Facebook gains access to email address, phone numbers, and all sorts of contact information of the user’s friends and family members. Once Facebook collects all of this contact information, it creates what the internet calls “Shadow Profiles.”

Shadow Profiles contain basic facts the user provides, such as names, interests, hobbies, combined with other info the user may not be aware Facebook has retrieved. Facebook reportedly denies the accusations of making shadow profiles for non-users, despite the fact that other social networking sites, such as Klout, admit to compiling non-user data.

After Facebook broke the news about the “bug” late on June 21, Facebook users criticized the social network for not explicitly apologizing for the inconvenience and the major blemish of exposing all of this personal information. Not once did they say “I’m Sorry”, but rather just wrote excuses for why this occurred. The excuses and the screw ups are both highly unacceptable and need to be dealt with in an appropriate manner. Who’s to say what information will be leaked next.

_{Sources: Daily Caller, Facebook, www.grahamcluley.com

Image credits : Facebook.com}

COMMENTS

BlackBerry To Launch BBM On Android And iOS This Summer

Apple Reveals Redesigned Mac Pro Desktop Computer

Sony Introduces A New Android-Powered Smart Watch

New App For Meditation Catches Up In Hollywood!

Go-To Guide For Female Entrepreneurs

New Rado Esenza Ceramic Touch - World's First Portable Ceramic Touch Device

Joe Biden Hails IIT-B As One Of The Top In The World

Facebook Leak Of 6 Million Users May Be More Serious Than Anticipated!

by Anokhi Admin

COMMENTS

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE