Thursday, December 08, 2011

Hackers strike at Facebook founder

How safe is your privacy on Facebook? Not very safe at all it appears, given that hackers have managed to acquire and post a series of private pictures of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The images included that of Zuckerberg preparing food with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan, playing with a pet dog, holding a chicken by the leg and meeting US President Barack Obama.

The hackers are believed to have exploited a bug related to tools designed to allow users report inappropriate images. A total of 14 pictures were posted online with the headline "It's time to fix those security flaws Facebook" [BBC].

The glitch was said to have been fixed some hours later [CBS], but the news will further dent the image of Facebook's hold on users' privacy.

The embarrassing incident comes less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission criticized changes made to Facebook's privacy settings two years ago. It accused the social network of deceptive practices and demanded it subject itself to regular audits over the next 20 years, something which Facebook relented.

tvnewswatch, London, UK

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