On Monday, Facebook revealed that a bug had affected the privacy settings of 800,000 users. The bug allowed users who had been blocked from Facebook and Messenger to regain access to it — without the people who had blocked them knowing.
According to statement on the issue, 83 percent of people affected by the bug only had one person temporarily unblocked them, while another 17 percent of users had more than one person unblocked due to the bug.
Unblocked users were unable to see content shared with friends of those who had blocked them. However, it is possible that they were able to communicate with the person who had blocked them via Messenger and view public posts that were not marked as friends-only.
While the issue has now been resolved, the bug was active for 8 days, affecting users from May 29th to June 5th.
Facebook further clarified what happened on Twitter. According to the company, visible Facebook user data is stored in pairs called “associations.” The bug deleted some connections on Facebook and Messenger, which caused the loss of privacy settings for affected users.
In its initial statement, Facebook outlined the reasons why someone might want to block another user. From wanting to “take a break from someone who posts content they find disturbing” to more serious reasons like harassment and bullying, the blocking feature is very important to making Facebook a safe place for its users.
With its statement, it's clear that Facebook understands the potential consequences of this error. However, after recent events, it seems that the company still needs to do a lot more when it comes to its users' privacy.
