Facebook discovered the error on July, 2 and, according to Recode, it has begun to notify people affected through pop-up messages for the next time the affected person uses Facebook. Blocking someone on Facebook should mean that the person cannot see any of the user’s posts or trigger any conversations on Messenger.
According to Facebook’s Privacy Officer Erin Egan: “While someone who was unblocked could not see content shared with friends, they could have seen things posted to a wider audience, for example pictures shared with friends of friends.”
She added: “We know that the ability to block someone is important – and we’d like to apologize.”
Egan explains, as CNBC reports, how no friendships that were completely severed were reinstated. Furthermore, of those impacted by the error, only one person they had blocked temporarily unblocked. Nonetheless, the glitch is bad news for Facebook, which is seeking to show that it takes data privacy seriously. Last week Facebook admitted that 110 third parties that had been given access to personal data. Facebook listed the companies as part of a response to U.S. politicians’ questions about its practices. The full list of companies has been published in The Wall Street Journal.
According to The Guardian, Apple, Amazon and the Chinese smartphone company Huawei were included among the companies on the list, for the purposes of building versions of Facebook on their devices and products.
