PUBLIC AFFAIR

Facebook Bug Sets 14 Million Users’ Sharing Settings to Public

The bug affected users between May 18 and May 27.

The sharing settings of 14 million Facebook users may have accidentally been switched from public to private, CNBC reports. The software bug, which occurred between May 18 and May 27, changed users’ pre-selected privacy settings to “public” without their knowledge. Although the posts were clearly marked as public, CNBC notes, “users who were used to their privacy settings could have easily overlooked the public designation.” Facebook has since re-categorized the posts in accordance with users’ preferred settings, and promised that the problem has been fixed. “Starting today we are letting everyone affected know and asking them to review any posts they made during that time,” chief privacy officer Erin Egan said in a statement cited by CNBC. “We'd like to apologize for this mistake.”