Facebook leaks 6 million users’ personal data to other members

A bug discovered by an outside researcher accidentally exposed email addresses and phone numbers of millions of users of the social network to other users, according to The Huffington Post.  

“When people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, we try to match that data with the contact information of other people on Facebook in order to generate friend recommendations,” the site’s security team wrote in a blog post.

Friday's online message stated, “When people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, we try to match that data with the contact information of other people on Facebook in order to generate friend recommendations." 

The company had been storing suggested friends' details in users' histories.  “As a result, if a person went to download an archive of their Facebook account through our Download Your Information (DYI) tool, they may have been provided with additional email addresses or telephone numbers for their contacts or people with whom they have some connection," company officials stated.

Facebook claims the security team fixed the error less than 24 hours after it was brought to their attention.

“Facebook says the bug has not been exploited maliciously, and the company is reaching out to the affected users,” TechCrunch reports.