A recent Facebook glitch has added users to groups that they had already quit. These users have had to leave the groups one by one that they had long since left, and many concerns have been raised about the security of information on these pages. Facebook goes out of its way to emphasize the security and privacy of its groups, but technical errors like this one aren’t going to help the site’s credibility.

“It’s 3 a.m. I was asleep and my phone suddenly tells me I have 50 notifications from groups I somehow joined while I was sleeping,” one Facebook user posted. “Some of them were groups I used to belong to but left, some aren’t. ALL say I joined ‘24 minutes ago’ while I was sleeping. What gives? No notifications saying I was added by anyone, just that I joined.”

If you have been affected by this glitch, the first step you should take is to manually unsubscribe to all the Groups you were automatically added to. Your groups are located in the left column underneath custom friends lists. It can be a painful process; there have already been complaints of users being added to 250 groups or more.

Next, if you are the administrator in a group, you should look at who is in the group and delete anyone that you think does not belong. Lastly, simply be careful what you post on Facebook. If you have private information in a Facebook group, perhaps you should consider removing it anyway. Even relatively innocuous glitches like this can seriously compromise your privacy.

We will update the story if any new information becomes available.

*Free Security Whitepapers*

Recommended Resources

BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams on Facebook.

PRIVATE WiFi® is a Personal VPN that encrypts everything you send and receive. Don’t access Facebook from a public WiFi hotspot without it.

Action Alert | Free Parental Control offers a 100% free Internet safety solution designed for parents. There is also a Maximum Protection option for parents that need a more advanced set of tools.