Fresh Facebook privacy glitch hits 14 million people

Company apologises after users unknowingly
shared private posts with the public

One-Minute Read

According to The Guardian, the glitch affected the social
media giant’s “audience selector” feature, which lets users choose
whether everyone or just those in their friends list can view a
post. 

The tool is meant to default to the option most recently
selected by the user, but the bug switched that setting to “public”
between 18 and 22 May, while Facebook was testing a new
feature. 

Around 14 million affected users posted publicly while the bug
was active, with images or statuses intended only for friends
instead shared with anyone accessing the social network,
the Financial Times says. 

The glitch has since been fixed and the company has begun
informing the users involved, the newspaper adds.

Facebook privacy chief Erin Egan said: “We’d like to
apologise for this mistake.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we are letting anyone
affected know today and asking them to review Facebook posts they
made during that time.” 

The recent glitch is “relatively minor”, but BBC News says it is
still “another embarrassing slip-up” for a company desperately
working to rebuild trust following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. 

A Facebook spokesperson told the broadcaster that the
company aims to be “more transparent with users”.