Guess what? That FB creep you had blocked could now access your profile! Yes, Facebook has apologised for yet another privacy breach.
In an announcement on Monday, July 2, Facebook said that over 800,000 of its users had been affected by a temporary bug that unblocked some people they had blocked.
Facebook posted: “The bug was active between May 29 and June 5 — and 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. We know that the ability to block someone is important — and we’d like to apologise and explain what happened.”
Some people took to Facebook and Twitter to express disappointment on what seems to becoming a norm with the social media platform.
User Jessie Wollmuth posted: “I know some people had an issue with this... and this is why the people you blocked were able to see what you posted recently!”
Anne Cox wrote: “Yet another reason to love Facebook, prime arbiters of ‘fake’ news. FB isn’t social media but more like a social experiment to see how far it can push people before people say enough is enough.”
Twitter user @cbar_tx joked: “@facebook is the bug.”
Some said it was time to quit the platform.
Kim-Ha Albert wrote: “Yet ANOTHER reason why everyone should just QUIT using this platform full of ‘glitches’ and worthless apologies....”
While tweep @Ziyad1993 asked : “You still use facebook?”
When you block someone on Facebook they cannot see things you post on your profile, start conversations with you on Messenger or add you as a friend. Blocking also automatically unfriends them if you were previously friends.
This is especially necessary in a world of online stalking, trolling and bullying.
According to Facebook: “In the case of this bug: It did not reinstate any friend connections that had been severed; 83 per cent of people affected by the bug had only one person they had blocked temporarily unblocked; and someone who was unblocked might have been able to use FB Messenger to contact people who had blocked them.”
Netizens said this was not the first time Facebook had compromised privacy of its users.
Patrick A. Phillips posted: “Facebook blames the unblocking glitch on a bug that lasted from May 29 to June 5. This is the second bug confirmed by Facebook in less than a month.”
And @TheTracStar tweeted: “It’s not an accident! Neither was the earlier release of people’s personal information... was ‘sold’ to marketing agents!”
In March 2018, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg vowed to “step up” to fix problems at the social media giant, as it tackled a scandal over the hijacking of personal data from millions of its users. A whistleblower revealed that British data consultant Cambridge Analytica had created psychological profiles on 50 million Facebook users via a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan. The app was downloaded by 270,000 people, but also scooped up their friends’ data without consent - as was possible under Facebook’s rules at the time.
Twitter user @alissa914 posted: “Ah. so it looks like the Russians will win the November [US] elections too.”
In the announcement, Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook added that the issue had now been fixed and everyone has been blocked again, and: “People who were affected will get a notification on Facebook encouraging them to check their blocked list.”