Facebook software bug makes private posts public; company refutes allegation

In yet another incident of data leak scandal, the private posts of about 14 million Facebook users were allegedly made public due to a software bug on Thursday. The company, however, has rubbished those rumours saying it did not change any private post to 'Public'.

"No private posts were changed to be public. The bug made the suggested audience 'Public' as opposed to the previous audience setting. Nothing was changed after posted," Facebook wrote in a tweet.

Speculations had been rife that the users, who were posting updates to friends or a smaller group only, had actually been sharing it widely with the general public across the world.

Typically, a Facebook user's posts default to a preselected privacy setting, but a software bug, which was active from May 18 to May 27 reportedly made posts automatically to 'Public'.

No private posts were changed to be public. The bug made the suggested audience “public” as opposed to the previous audience setting. Nothing was changed after posted. Read more details here: https://t.co/xKiYgxoJ62 … https://t.co/25eh3I3vXw

— Facebook (@facebook) June 7, 2018

Also Read | Facebook gave firms broad access to data on users, friends

Going by the earlier reports, the bug changed users' privacy settings to public, without notifying them regarding the changes. Facebook, however, had fixed the glitch and said they will notify the 14 million users who could have been affected due to the bug starting from May 18.

"We are letting everyone affected know and asking them to review any posts they made during that time. We'd like to apologize for this mistake," Erin Egan, Facebook chief privacy officer said in a statement.

"We'd like to apologize for this mistake," Egan added.

Hi @yonatanzunger To be clear, the bug affected Facebook posts, NOT private messages. It suggested posting publicly as opposed to the previous audience setting. Regardless, this was a significant mistake and we apologize to those affected by it. https://t.co/hgEKBzSxnC

— Facebook (@facebook) June 7, 2018

Also Read | Facebook suspends 200 apps over Cambridge Analytica fiasco

The American social networking site, invented by Mark Zuckerberg, is under scanner following a data privacy scandal, which allegedly privileged access to Cambridge Analytica - a UK based data analysis firm.

Earlier in March, it came to light that Cambridge Analytica mined data from Facebook in the voter research, which was conducted for US President Donald Trump during the 2016 elections campaign.