Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#41

Post by iyulaev » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:39 PM UTC

huzur79 wrote: post #34

click170 wrote: post #11

Im surprised at Facebooks response, which is basically, "Your all crazy and there is no problem".

Hum http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/24/reports-facebook-users-seei... "TechCrunch has investigated more, and we have found no evidence that the allegedly exposed posts were actually private messages. Their email receipts show they were in fact wall posts, and the posts do not appear in users’ Facebook Messages inbox. Facebook also says in no uncertain terms that there is absolutely no privacy bug. What people are seein…

Interesting. Did you register just now to post this response?

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#42

Post by huzur79 » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:41 PM UTC

palebluedot wrote: post #35

This seems to be anecdotally confirmed by multiple people here. To me, if true , this screams of a broken engineering culture inside Facebook, where the model for data privacy and security is secondary, not primary. If this is indeed verified, no one should ever use Facebook for anything truly private, regardless of what apologies or excuses are made. It is difficult to think of something like this, where private ema…

If it is indeed verified I would be the first one to jump on the bandwaggon and delete the account and tell others to do so. But so far I have not seen anything to verify it and more reports on Facebook claims that it is indeed old user to user wall posts (something I remember and used in the past personally) just showing up from people now liking them which at the time they didn't have a like button.

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#43

Post by drbawb » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:42 PM UTC

iyulaev wrote: post #22

Flimm wrote: post #13

I'm deactivating my account because of this. I can manage without Facebook for a few days until they fix this bug.

Wow, a few weeks ago I was joking that if Facebook went through my private messages, I wouldn't be surprised, based on how scummy they've behaved in the past. Now apparently they've done this, except also shared everything with the whole world. I don't think I have to say this, but this is totally, 100% unacceptable. Back then I was using FB almost as a personal e-mail; the consequences of something like this could b…

This is where someone typically parrots: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." -- Eric Schmidt; Executive Chairman, Google, Inc.

To which I reply: I'm sorry, but my personal matters are personal _expressly because_ I've found people to be ignorant, bigoted, biased, or otherwise untrustworthy when it comes to matters of my identity.

The fact that I could lose my job because of my thoughts on cannabis prohibition? Or that I could be disowned because of my political and [lack of] religious tendencies? These things are private not because they're wrong, Mr. Schmidt. They're private because _someone_ thinks they're wrong; and _someone_ is making decisions that could impact _my future_ by judging what's publicly available.

I can no longer trust Facebook to be a secure messaging platform, which is basically all I used it for. I'm going to take charge of my web presence to whatever degree I can. I'm done letting large corporations abuse my data for their own gain, only to have shit like this happen.

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#44

Post by speg » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:42 PM UTC

palebluedot wrote: post #35

This seems to be anecdotally confirmed by multiple people here. To me, if true , this screams of a broken engineering culture inside Facebook, where the model for data privacy and security is secondary, not primary. If this is indeed verified, no one should ever use Facebook for anything truly private, regardless of what apologies or excuses are made. It is difficult to think of something like this, where private ema…

Someone must have a copy of an email notification that they can tie to one of these posts...

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#45

Post by jwpeddle » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:42 PM UTC

tisme wrote: post #37

huzur79 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/24/reports-facebook-users-seei... "TechCrunch has investigated more, and we have found no evidence that the allegedly exposed posts were actually private messages. Their email receipts show they were in fact wall posts, and the posts do not appear in users’ Facebook Messages inbox. Facebook also says in no uncertain terms that there is absolutely no privacy bug. What people are seein…

> And I've been looking pretty hard for the last 30 minutes. You need not look so far, it's right here in this thread. People are confirming some of their private messages set to 'friends' only to be world visible on their timeline.

They aren't confirming anything. People are looking at wallposts and thinking/remembering they are private messages, but everyone that has tried to verify using email notifications has found only wallposts. Until someone shows that a verifiable private message showed up publicly, than there's no reason to continue spreading this. If it's a problem, it can easily be confirmed. Even Techcrunch, who criticised Facebook's response have now backpedaled.

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#46

Post by wilfra » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:43 PM UTC

tisme wrote: post #37

huzur79 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/24/reports-facebook-users-seei... "TechCrunch has investigated more, and we have found no evidence that the allegedly exposed posts were actually private messages. Their email receipts show they were in fact wall posts, and the posts do not appear in users’ Facebook Messages inbox. Facebook also says in no uncertain terms that there is absolutely no privacy bug. What people are seein…

> And I've been looking pretty hard for the last 30 minutes. You need not look so far, it's right here in this thread. People are confirming some of their private messages set to 'friends' only to be world visible on their timeline.

No, people are making the same mistake the TC reporters made.

Look through the "private messages" of your friends. The dead giveaway is that a huge number of them are happy birthday posts. People post those on walls.

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#47

Post by soupboy » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:43 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #38

If I could short FB I would do so immediately. The fallout from this is going to be immense and long-term. I'd imagine they are facing two choices at FB right now: 1. Take the site down and prevent any further leaks. But accept the absolutely massive flak that would come from that. or 2. Continue to let the leaking happen and try to hotfix the bug. Be accused of failing to get a handle on it, but perhaps get away wit…

"Update: Facebook Confirms No Private Messages Appearing On Timeline. They’re Old Wall Posts."

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#48

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:43 PM UTC

huzur79 wrote: post #42

palebluedot wrote: post #35

This seems to be anecdotally confirmed by multiple people here. To me, if true , this screams of a broken engineering culture inside Facebook, where the model for data privacy and security is secondary, not primary. If this is indeed verified, no one should ever use Facebook for anything truly private, regardless of what apologies or excuses are made. It is difficult to think of something like this, where private ema…

If it is indeed verified I would be the first one to jump on the bandwaggon and delete the account and tell others to do so. But so far I have not seen anything to verify it and more reports on Facebook claims that it is indeed old user to user wall posts (something I remember and used in the past personally) just showing up from people now liking them which at the time they didn't have a like button.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#49

Post by tisme » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:43 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #38

If I could short FB I would do so immediately. The fallout from this is going to be immense and long-term. I'd imagine they are facing two choices at FB right now: 1. Take the site down and prevent any further leaks. But accept the absolutely massive flak that would come from that. or 2. Continue to let the leaking happen and try to hotfix the bug. Be accused of failing to get a handle on it, but perhaps get away wit…

And in case it is true flat out deny it ever happened.

Re: Facebook Users Report Seeing Old Private Messages Showing Up On Timelines

#50

Post by huzur79 » Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 7:45 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #38

If I could short FB I would do so immediately. The fallout from this is going to be immense and long-term. I'd imagine they are facing two choices at FB right now: 1. Take the site down and prevent any further leaks. But accept the absolutely massive flak that would come from that. or 2. Continue to let the leaking happen and try to hotfix the bug. Be accused of failing to get a handle on it, but perhaps get away wit…

Oh its false and not real, did that even occur to you or is your hate of facebook so intense that this possibility that users could be mistaken is just not possible. You know the very same people who gladly give up a ton of personal information on line to any one in the first place and stupidly trust corporations with personal information. I mean really is it impossible that these very same users could be mistaken with regards to old wall to wall posts?