Security Alert! Facebook Admits Collecting User’s Personal Information Without Consent

Volatile year at Facebook exposed by Wired magazine

Facebook and Instagram have been facing technical glitches from time to time since 2018. However, the Tech company has been assuring its customers that there is no cause for alarm.

However, Facebook made an announcement that could destroy public confidence with the company.

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Facebook has admitted that it collected up to 1.5 million users’ email contacts without their consent, in the latest privacy issue to hit the giant tech firm.

Facebook which is the world’s biggest social network said Wednesday night that the email contact lists had been “unintentionally” uploaded to Facebook following a design change almost two years ago, and the company was now in the process of deleting them.

Facebook confirmed that the glitch started three years ago when it made changes to the step-by-step verification process which users go through when signing up for an account on the platform.

Prior to those changes, users were given the option to upload their email contact lists when opening an account to help them find friends already on Facebook.

Facebook Fast Facts

In May 2016, Facebook removed language that explained users’ contact lists could be uploaded to the company’s servers when they signed up for an account.

This meant that in some cases people’s email contact lists were uploaded to Facebook without their knowledge or consent.

A Facebook spokesperson said Wednesday the firm did not realize this was happening until April of this year when it stopped offering email password verification as an option for people signing up to Facebook for the first time.

“When we looked into the steps people were going through to verify their accounts, we found that in some cases people’s email contacts were also unintentionally uploaded to Facebook when they created their account,” the spokesperson added.

The company said the mistakenly uploaded contact lists had not been shared with anyone outside of Facebook.

Ashkan Soltani, a former chief technology officer for the Federal Trade Commission, tweeted Wednesday evening that he thought this was “one of the most legally actionable behaviors by @facebook to date.”I’m confident regulators will be taking a look,” he said.

Over the last 18 months, these have included the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and the biggest security breach in its history.CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded to criticism by promising to introduce more privacy-focused measures on the platform, such as encrypted messaging and better data security.

Facebook was also engulfed in controversy after a shooter in New Zealand live-streamed hisMarch 15 attack on two mosques in Christchurch using the social network’s video tools.

The shooter killed 50 people. Its WhatsApp instant messaging application has been accused of enabling the spread of misinformation in India.

This happens when Facebook CEO was listed in TIMES 100 Most influential people in 2019.


Faced with tensions between the company’s idealistic belief in impartiality and “openness” and the realities of managing this global platform (public scrutiny, accusations of privacy abuses and government investigations), Mark will need to make hard choices. My hope is that he remains true to the ideals upon which the company was founded—choosing to promote universal values like decency over sensationalism, intimacy over social status, and human dignity over tribalism—or in Zuck speak, simply: “goodness.” TIMES 100 describes Zuckerberg

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