Facebook is alerting 6 million of its users that their e-mails or phone numbers were inadvertently shared with other members.
The social network said Friday that it has discovered and patched a bug in its "Download Your Information" tool that unintentionally exposed some members' contact details. The bug was reported earlier this month through the company's
White Hat program, which rewards security researchers for reporting vulnerabilities. The bug was fixed within 24 hours, a company spokesperson told CNET.
"It's ... something we're upset and embarrassed by," Facebook said in a
note published to its security blog. "We'll work doubly hard to make sure nothing like this happens again."
The glitch itself is a bit difficult to explain, but essentially if you chose to download a copy of your data, your Facebook archive may have included the phone number or e-mail address of a person who you are connected to but did not have those particular contact details for. The extra information was provided because of a hiccup during the friend recommendation process.
Facebook explained the situation
security blog with the following description:
