Test users of Facebook’s most recent tool, a real-time implementation called „Happening Now“, have reported that the service breaks their privacy settings – possibly caused by a bug. Facebook has reacted and denied that the reported feature is a bug, but rather says it is intentional. Facebook watchbloggers recommend a further tightening of user’s privacy settings.
„The new feature is strongly reminiscent of Twitter and shows what the users‘ friends are „liking“ and commenting on as these actions happen“, writes a blogger. It is shown in a sidebar on the right and it reads for example: „user A posted a link“, „user B likes group C“, „user D commented on a link“. It duplicates much of the content in the main news feed, while refreshing it gives users the possibility to pull up even more information.
However, some of the test users have reported via Twitter about a bug on „Happening Now“ that violates their privacy settings. The service is apparently able to bypass the settings of users that have restricted the visibility of their images to „friends only“ or an even smaller circle. As soon as user B, a friend of user A, comments user A’s pictures, they pop up in B’s „Happening Now“ and are thus available to B’s friends – if they are befriended to A or not.
„It’s still unknown whether the bug carries over to other features as well, such as status updates or, perhaps, places“, reports the blogger. Facebook, confronted with this problem, stated that it was not a bug, but intended: „When a person tags their friend in a photo, the photo is posted to their friend’s Wall where their friends can see it“, a spokesperson said.
„Happening Now“ is currently only tested with the Facebook accounts of a small percentage of its currently around 670 million users – this is not an unusual procedure at Facebook. It has apparently not been decided when and in what form the feature will be rolled out to all users. Facebook watchdogs strongly recommend making pictures and other private files only available to as few people as necessary and to uncheck the „Let friends of people tagged in my photos and posts see them“ option in the privacy settings tab.
