Facebook is going to notify over eight lakh users about a bug which may have unblocked some people they had blocked, the company said in a release on Monday.
The bug was active from May 29 to June 5 in both Facebook and Messenger, company chief privacy officer Erin Egan informed.
"...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," Egan added.
When a user blocks someone on Facebook they cannot see things posted by the user, start conversations with the user on Messenger or add as a friend. Blocking also automatically unfriends them if the users were previously friends.
The company said the issue has been fixed and the bug has been eliminated. Unblocked users have been blocked again.
Apparently, the bug did not cause unblocked users to become friend with the users who had blocked them even if they were friends before getting blocked. It means if an affected individual posted to a friends-only audience then it should have remained private. However, the previously blocked person could add as a friend or even contact on Messenger.
Factbox: Who is Cambridge Analytica and what did it do?
This year has not been good for Facebook as long as issues related to privacy are concerned. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which unfolded in March, affected more than 8.7 crore users. Personal and sensitive data of users was scraped by the analytics company which was allegedly used for Trump campaign for the US presidential polls 2016, among others.
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