Facebook considers legal bid after 100 million users' details
Facebook considers legal bid after 100 million users’ details
0 Comments | Herald, The; Glasgow (UK), Jul 29, 2010 | by ALISON CAMPSIE
FACEBOOK is considering legal action after the personal details of 100 million users were published and freely distributed on the internet.
The details were “scraped” by web security expert Ron Bowes to highlight how a change in Facebook’s privacy settings has left millions of people unaware that their information can be openly accessed.
The list, published on the website Pirate Bay, contains links to every name, profile and unique ID of those left exposed by the new privacy policy adopted by Facebook. By last night more than 1000 people had downloaded the file. Bowes used a simple code to collect the data, claiming his work highlighted privacy issues on the social networking site.
Facebook said the information was already available on the website but that it was investigating the methods used to collect and publish the material.
A spokesman said: “In this case, information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher. This information already exists in Google, Bing and other search engines, as well as on Facebook
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