How does that happen? And what does this mean for Facebook and its users? We’ve got answers.
What happened?
Facebook is blaming a software bug for automatically changing an important privacy setting: The setting that determines who can see a user’s new posts. That setting is ”sticky,” which means it stays consistent from post to post unless it’s manually changed. So if you share a post exclusively with your Facebook “friends,” all future posts will appear for that same group unless the setting is updated manually. Facebook says a software bug changed that setting to “public” for 14 million users without any warning, meaning people posting under the impression they were sharing with a smaller group of users, may have unknowingly shared with everyone.
Why does it matter?
One of Facebook’s key promises to users is that they control who can see their content. A bug like this completely undermines that promise, and erodes user trust, which was already a major issue given Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle.
