Facebook bug changes privacy setting to public of 14 million users

Facebook is back at it again. A recent bug on the app has been detected that changed privacy settings of around 14 million users to public, which can let anyone on the internet read posts that were intended only for private audiences.

Facebook announced on June 7 that it has discovered a bug that automatically suggests users to post publicly while they are posting something on the social media app. The site also claimed that they have started informing the 14 million people affected with the bug and asked them to review any posts before they publish them.

The company clarified that the bug did not impact anything that people have already posted prior to the bug detection and they still have the option to choose their audience just like before. They claimed that this particular bug appeared as they were ‘building a new way to share features items on your profile, like a photo’. Because these featured items are public, the suggested audience for all the new future posts was set to public.

However, according to Facebook, the problem has been fixed and the audience has been changed back to what the affected user has set it before to. Yet, as a precaution, Facebook said that it has informed users to review their posts.

“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. If you posted publicly, you’ll see a notification when you log in that leads to a page with more information – including a review of posts during this period,” wrote Facebook.

Referring to Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook concluded, “We’ve heard loud and clear that we need to be more transparent about how we build our products and how those products use your data – including when things go wrong. And that is what we are doing here.”