Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) was flooded with complaints from users yesterday, claiming their old private messages are getting displayed publicly. Though the social networker admitted that some of the old messages were reappearing, the company also said there has been no privacy breach, as those messages were old public messages.
To calm the panic, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s director of engineering, Andrew Bosworth said “In case there was any concern, these are just wall posts and not personal messages… people just forget how we used to use the wall!.”
Despite the denial from the company, complaints have been registered from users in Britain, America, and in Europe ,claiming the private messages sent by them between 2007 and 2009 were being republished into their public timelines on the site.
Even the profile of the Company’s CEO got bugged, showing a message to a friend in 2009 that said “2009 is going to be a huge year”.
Denying the privacy breach, a Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) spokesman said: “A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline. Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users’ profile pages. Facebook is satisfied that there has been no breach of user privacy.”
Even though the company altogether denied the claims, a writer for an American technology website confirms the messages displayed on the timelines were indeed, private messages.
One of the Facebook users from London complains that her private messages from 2006 to 2008, which had been sent to her by other users had appeared on her wall, and messages she had sent as private were showing up on her friend’s wall. She said “This is worrying. I’m trying to figure out how to fix it. It’s scary. They are private messages, and my friends and I used to discuss private things on Facebook.”
Another complaint said “This Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Message thing is a huge mess. Confirmed for me. Found some private messages fully exposed on my timeline.”
Due to the number of complaints, French ministers have ordered Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) managers to appear before the country’s data watchdog to explain the claims from the users that private messages appeared in public areas on the social network.
Looks like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been doing some things to disappoint its biggest assets i.e. users, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Just recently the social networker introduced its Timeline Page and forced the users to adopt it, despite some resentment from the users.
