Zuckerberg exposed in privacy flap

Updated on: 08 December,2011 06:46 AM IST |
Agencies |

A flaw in the social networking site has granted prying users access to private photographs of the website's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg

A flaw in the social networking site has granted prying users access to private photographs of the website's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg

The bug in the website's photo reporting tool which Facebook says was only temporary and has now been fixedu00a0meant that users could access others' pictures even if they were private.

Users were able to look at the private photos by 'reporting' a profile picture as 'inappropriate', which then saw other photos displayed, such as those of Facebook CEO Zuckerberg.

A Facebook spokesman said the glitch happened because of 'one of our most recent code pushes' but it was only live for a short time and 'not all content was accessible'.

"The reporting system was disabled and will be brought back to normal once the bug has been fixed by the website's developers," the spokesman added, restating the site's commitment to data privacy.

The glitch and resulting private photos of Zuckerberg went viral.

The embarrassing incident comes a week after the Federal Trade Commission slammed changes made to Facebook's privacy settings two years ago.

Rs 36 cr
The cost of Mark Zuckerberg's five-bedroom, five bathroom house in California, which he purchased in May this year

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