Just when people started to hope that Facebook had taken care of all the data privacy issues concerning its users, a new goof-up has come to the fore. over 800,000 users were affected by a Facebook bug that unblocked some people who had been blocked by these users, the social media giant has admitted.
The bug that affected users on the social networking site and Messenger was active between May 29 and June 5, and Facebook has started notifying all these over 800,000 users about it. “While someone who was unblocked could not see content shared with friends, they could have seen things posted to a wider audience. For example pictures shared with friends of friends,” Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook, said in a blog post on Tuesday, apologising and explaining what happened.
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When you block someone on Facebook, the person can’t see your posts. They also cannot start conversations with you on Messenger or add you as a friend. Also, if the blocked user had been on your friend list, he or she automatically gets unfriended too.
What this Facebook bug did not reinstate any friend connections that had been severed, Egan said, it might have allowed those unblocked to contact on Messenger people who had blocked them.
“Nearly 83 per cent of people affected by the bug had only one person they had blocked temporarily unblocked,” said the post.
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“While 800,000 people is just a tiny fraction of the 2.2 billion Facebook user base, that is still a sizable number of affected users who may have been subject to concerning episodes,” The Verge reported.
Facebook, however, said the issue had now been fixed all those blocked stood blocked again.
“People who were affected will get a notification on Facebook encouraging them to check their blocked list,” said the post.
Facebook has been fighting privacy issues ever since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, involving 87 million users, came to light.
In June, Facebook disclosed that another bug had changed users’ privacy setting defaults to public in May, affecting as many as 14 million users over several days.