Due to a case of ‘whoops’ the popular social networking site, Facebook, punted on privacy Monday.
From the Associated Press:
The Associated Press verified the loophole Monday after receiving a tip from a Byron Ng, a Vancouver, Canada computer technician. Ng began looking for security weaknesses last week after Facebook unveiled more ways for 67 million members to restrict access to their personal profiles.
But the added protections weren’t enough to prevent Ng from pulling up the most recent pictures posted by Facebook members and their friends, even if the privacy settings were set to restrict the audience to a select few.
After being alerted Monday afternoon, Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said the Palo Alto-based company fixed the bug within an hour.
“We take privacy very seriously and continue to make enhancements to the site,” she said.
The latest lapse serves as another reminder of the perils of sharing sensitive photos and personal information online, even when Web sites pledge to shield the information from prying eyes.
It’s good to see that Facebook fixed the problem quickly. But more importantly people have to realize that they’re always taking a chance when putting private information onto a website over which they have no control. There is no real guarantee that your information will be safe. Have a long pause before you post things on a site such as Facebook (not beating on them). Never know who could be looking.
