Social networking giant Facebook is once again drawing negative attention after angry users reacted to their phone numbers being published and visible to others on the platform.
The privacy scandal has users upset that full names and phone numbers of contacts in their mobile phones, many of whom don’t have an account, have been posted to Facebook’s Phonebook Contacts page.
Angry users copied and pasted messages into their profiles warning friends of the privacy violation, and urging users to change their account settings.
“ALL PHONE NUMBERS from your phone are now on facebook! TO REMOVE: at top right of the screen, click on ACCOUNT, click on EDIT FRIENDS. Then on the left side of screen, click CONTACTS. You will see that all the phone numbers from your cell phone (FB friends or not) are published. Go to the right screen and click on “this page”, then hit REMOVE. Repost this on your status, so your friends can remove their (your) numbers and thus prevent abuse.”
Facebook responded to the uproar with a post on its fan page, which read “Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false. Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time. The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook. Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers.”
Thousands of people commented on Facebook’s response, the majority of whom remain irate at Facebook’s disregard for users’ personal privacy. A number of posts also said they did not approve the mobile to Facebook sync and yet still found phone numbers posted to their contacts page.
To remove the phone numbers from your contacts page, click Account, Edit Friends, and then Contacts. On the right of the screen click This Page and remove.
