It seems privacy is a constant concern to most Facebook users. If you're among those who are worried about how the social networking giant handles your data, you won't be happy with today's news. The company today announced that its process for generating friend suggestions may have resulted in some users' information being exposed.
Facebook says it recently received a report about a bug that allowed some of a user's contact information to be accessed by people who either had some contact information about that user or some connection to them. The company goes on to explain just how this all happened, revealing that some of the information used to make friend recommendations (a combination of contact lists or address books uploaded by users and contact information already on Facebook) was inadvertently stored in association with people's contact information as part of their Facebook account. People using the Download Your Information Tool may then have been provided with additional information (email addresses or phone numbers) for their contacts or "people with whom they have come connection."
Facebook says that roughly six million users had email addresses or numbers shared as a result of this bug. Other email addresses and phone numbers included in the downloads were not connected to any Facebook accounts or names. Facebook says that each email address or phone number was only included in one or two downloads and that no other personal information was shared. Facebook is emailing affected users and regulators in Canada, the U.S. and Europe have been notified about the incident.
