Facebook in Hot Waters for Multiple Privacy Leaks
Facebook suffers another big blow with the revelation of yet another breach of their users’ privacy, following their most recent notice of a security issue which affected almost 50 million accounts just a couple of months prior. In their statement, it was said that an API bug was discovered by the social network’s internal team, which granted permission to third-party apps that eventually led to an access of their users’ photos.
Reportedly, 1,500 apps and 6.8 million Facebook users were all affected by the bug which exposed its users’ private photos in public which disturbingly lasted for a total of 12 days. In normal circumstances, giving authorization through third-party apps could only give access to public photos shared on your timeline, but the bug that hit Facebook created an access on private photos. Facebook promised to notify its affected users, and have also provided a direct link in where its users can check if their accounts were compromised by the bug.
In addition to the photo privacy leak, The New York Times reported another perturbing situation wherein the social network giant also allowed streaming services like Spotify and Netflix to read, write, and even delete users’ private messages. Spotify denied any knowledge on this, while Netflix mentioned that it only used the said access to enable customers to recommend TV shows and movies to their friends, and “never accessed anyone’s personal messages”.
Amidst these privacy concerns, we should always remember to do all precautionary measures in securing not only your online accounts, but all your devices. Trend Micro Premium Security not only secures your privacy on social media, it also defends your devices from any types of online threats such as e-mail scams and ransomware.
