Facebook handle millions of E-Mail contacts without permission

Within three years, Facebook invited contact details of up to 1.5 million new users - without their permission. There are also millions of likely to be affected by people who have no Facebook account, the systems of the group, but now are known. Facebook had removed the question of the consent of the user easy, but the contact info continue to be imported. the

In the case of Facebook, there is another privacy glitch: The Online network invited in the past three years, the contact details of up to 1.5 million new users in its systems - without their permission. So at least the E-Mail should be landed addresses of millions of people in the databases of the group that are not members of the network. Finally, well practically every one of the 1.5 million users in dozens or hundreds of contacts tap, the Facebook.

The mistake had been discovered last month after a Change to the logon procedure, was confirmed by Facebook on Thursday. The data had been shared with anyone else and would be deleted. The error was fixed and affected users would be informed. The new error was first reported by the financial news Portal Business Insider .

The contact data to be uploaded, in some cases, the confirmation of the E-Mail address for new user, if this had entered the password of his Mail account. Facebook asked for these passwords, and so had the opportunity to confirm the E-Mail address of the new member. This procedure managed to Facebook after criticism from privacy advocates.

A Facebook spokesman said Business Insider, it had offered to the users prior to may 2016, together with the verification of volunteer contacts from the E-Mail account to upload. Thus, the U.S. group was able to recommend the users about new friends. Also, this function was abolished. The text of the note had in fact been deleted. However, the underlying functionality has not been removed, the spokesman said. The affected users were not so in demand, your contacts just uploaded.

Facebook did not have access to the E-Mail contents of the users. How many contact details are landed without a corresponding note in the case of Facebook, can only be estimated. It can be, depending on the size of the respective address books of several hundred million records. It remained unclear whether Facebook used the data for targeted advertising.

Facebook in the past few years, privacy-roadside. Therefore, antitrust authorities and data protection authorities of the group, particularly in the eye. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly promised better protection for the privacy of its users.