We are not sure whether Facebook actively tries to stay in the news through ‘mistakes’, or whether it is truly unlucky but we seem to be continuously hearing about unfortunate things happening at the company. Ironically, almost all of them, in one way or another, link to data breaches or leaks. As reported recently, Facebook leaked app analytics reports to some app testers outside their company ‘by mistake’.
Facebook Leaked App Analytics Reports ‘Mistakenly’ To Wrong Recipients
Reportedly, a Facebook developer reached out to TechCrunch describing a ‘mistake’ by which Facebook leaked app analytics reports to some incorrect recipients. As explained by the developer, Facebook mistakenly sent a weekly Facebook App Analytics summary to app testers outside the company. Unfortunately, it included sensitive information about Facebook, such as the new users, average users per week, and page views, etc.
Reportedly, the reports for approximately 3% of the apps that used Facebook Analytics were accidentally shared with the app testers. Those reports were, however, actually meant for the app developers, analysts, and admins.
Facebook Notifies App Owners – Confirms Safety Of Sensitive Details
Facebook confirms that the report didn’t contain any sensitive details itself. Instead, it contained a link to the actual details that is not accessible by the app testers.
After the incident, Facebook began notifying the affected app owners about the matter, confirming that the sensitive details about the apps remain safe. This is what the email states,
“We mistakenly sent the last weekly email summary to your Testers, in addition to the usual group of Admins, Analysts, and Developers who get updates. Testers were only able to see the high-level summary information in the email, and were not able to access any other account information; if they clicked “View Dashboard” they did not have access to any of your Facebook Analytics information.”
Facebook spokesperson, Joe Osborne, explained that the error occurred due to a problem in the email delivery system. He further apologizes for the incident in his official statement,
“Due to an error in our email delivery system, weekly business performance summaries we send to developers about their account were also sent to a small group of those developer’s app testers. We are sorry for the error and have updated our system to prevent it from happening again.”
Not much time has passed since the Facebook blunder making millions of private posts public. And now, we get this news about some error in the ‘email delivery system’ that delivered sensitive analytics report to outsiders. Certainly it appears that Facebook could do with a thorough review of its technical side to avoid such blunders.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.