Earlier this month, security researchers revealed that the data of over 500 million users had been posted online. Most of the information — including dates of birth, phone numbers, full names, and more — was obtained via data scraping in 2019. According to Facebook, it fixed the problem. However, an internal email leaked this week reveals that Facebook wants users to prepare for many more data scraping leaks in the future.

“Longer term… we expect more scraping incidents and think it’s important to both frame this as a broad industry issue and normalize the fact that this activity happens regularly,” the internal email read.

After this email was revealed, Facebook was quick to issue a statement explaining that it is still working tirelessly to crack down on data scraping — despite wanting users to get used to it.

“We are committed to continuing to educate users about data scraping,” Facebook said in a statement to ZDNet. “We understand people’s concerns, which is why we continue to strengthen our systems to make scraping from Facebook without our permission more difficult and go after the people behind it. That’s why we devote substantial resources to combat it and will continue to build out our capabilities to help stay ahead of this challenge.”

It’s a good thing that this email leaked and forced Facebook to explain itself. However, the company didn’t exactly backtrack from its original position. Here’s hoping Facebook actually commits to solving this problem instead of just telling us we have to live with it.

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