Facebook Deals With More Privacy Breaches: You’ve Got (Someone Else’s) Mail!

If you were one of several hundred users on Facebook last night, your Inbox may have been flooded by some strange messages, none of which were intended for you. During a routine coding update, some users noticed what at first appeared to be a hack, as they began receiving messages from people they didn’t know…some of them personal in nature.

The news quickly spread on Twitter:



The weirdness lasted for less than an hour, and a spokesperson for Facebook quickly acknowledged the problem. In the meantime those who received mixed messages will not only be unable to access their own mail, but won’t even be able to log onto the site:

“During our regular code push yesterday evening, a bug caused some misrouting to a small number of users for a short period of time. Our engineers diagnosed the problem moments after it began and are working to get everything back in its rightful place. While they fix the issue, affected users will not be able to access the site.”

This glitch has brought up some privacy concerns for the site, which unfortunately follow right on the heels of its last media firestorm for a similar issue, when profiles defaulted to a public setting (so anyone could see all your information) after changes were made to the system. As it turns out, we don’t have as much to fear from Big Brother watching us so much as our parents and potential employers.

Follow us on Twitter.

Sign up for Mediaite's daily newsletter.