Facebook Publishing Private Messages

There has been buzz around the Internet that popular social networking site Facebook has started to publish archived private messages from 2008-2010 onto users walls from a bug within the site. Some would argue that this is invasion of privacy and that Facebook should have programs to stop this from happening.

However, Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens stated that Facebook hadn’t been unable to confirm any issue related to a leakage of private messages, (www.guardian.co.uk).

When I head about this ‘leakage’ I went back to 2008-2010 on my timeline and could not see any private messages. However, there were old wall posts that I hadn’t read in years. This could have sparked the rumours about the ‘leakage’ as users do not check their timeline regularly they had forgotten what had been posted. Within this time frame there wasn’t the ability to comment on a wall post, it was called wall-to-wall, which looks similar to a conversation in a private message.

Users need to ensure they are careful about what they say on the Internet as once it is there everyone can see it and can never be deleted.

So, not to worry, it looks like Facebook hasn’t taken over your account and all private messages are still safe. If you want to be extra cautious, check your privacy settings to ensure only friends can see your posts.