Facebook Bug Accidentally Made Private Status Updates Public

Companies such as Facebook have tools and options that lets users choose who can see their posts. This means that if you’re a private person and want to keep your status updates and posts private, you can mark that option. However what use is an option if it doesn’t work properly, right?

This is something that at least 14 million Facebook users are finding out. In a report from TechCrunch, it seems that Facebook has started notifying 14 million of their users around the world in which some of their posts which should have been marked as private have accidentally been marked as public due to a bug.

This bug is said to have been active between the 18th of May to the 22nd of May, with Facebook only switching the status composer back to the correct privacy setting on the 27th of May. This means that posts made before or after that timeframe should not be affected, but posts made within that period could be. Facebook is now notifying users to double check their posts made between that period to see if it needs to be manually changed back to private.

In a statement made to TechCrunch, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said, “We recently found a bug that automatically suggested posting publicly when some people were creating their Facebook posts. We have fixed this issue and starting today we are letting everyone affected know and asking them to review any posts they made during that time. To be clear, this bug did not impact anything people had posted before – and they could still choose their audience just as they always have. We’d like to apologize for this mistake.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Facebook, Privacy