Facebook was a privacylek with respect to the addresses and phone numbers of 6 million people. Due to the nature of the bug, it was the information, however, is only visible to a single other person. Facebook e-mail affected users personally.
Facebook got a tip about the leak via its White Hat program to report beveiligingsbugs. The address and the phone number, normally guarded, were only to approach for a person who has contact information of the user or that already have a connection with the person had.
The bug has to do with the aanbevelingstechnologie of Facebook. As users to their contact list or address book to add, try Facebook data to match with information from other users, so the service friends can recommend. Some of the dates to match, but it was stored as part of contact information in Facebook accounts. If the owner of an account own data wanted to download as part of the Download Your Information-program, he got the address and the phone number of the appropriate contact person. “We estimate that 1 Facebook user this additional contact information besides your name can see after he/she has a copy of his/her account information had been downloaded”, says Facebook in an email to affected users.
Facebook claims to be the Download Your Information tool immediately taken offline after the notification, and the problem is solved. According to the site, which is when the majority of the 6 million affected users with the information one or two once downloaded. The impact is slight, in the opinion of the service in his e-mail to users: “There are no other information about you is displayed and it is likely that it is someone that you know, even though you are not friends on Facebook.” Facebook has the users through an e-mail alerted and the authorities in Europe of the datalek informed.