Facebook Bug Reveals Anonymous Page Administrators

Facebook is often blamed for intentionally compromising user privacy in the name of revenue. However, the social media giant often puts our information at risk simply by making mistakes. That was the case late last week when a major bug exposed the accounts behind Facebook Pages for public figures, businesses and other entities not tied to an individual profile.

According to WIRED, Facebook fixed this flaw within a day — but not before it was discovered and shared on message boards like 4chan. As a result, the accounts running official pages for numerous high-profile users were exposed, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton, the hacking group Anonymous and more.

“For sensitive Pages, I would not rule out that some people may be feeling that they are in danger due to what happened today,” said Lukasz Olejnik, an independent privacy adviser and research associate at Oxford University. “Using fake accounts to run Pages would have been a good idea. Some could see it as a paranoid way of hiding, but it’s not.”

“People who run sensitive Pages from their own Facebook should now consider that their identity may be known,” he continued. “While mistakes happen, this one is unexpected.”

The positive here is that this error didn’t affect any everyday Facebook users. Still, if the company can’t even bother to protect celebrities, do we really think it will protect us?




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