Facebook privacy problem?

I’ve just seen something rather alarming on Facebook.

It looks like there’s a problem with the social networking website in so much as it is showing people’s full dates of birth – even when they have specifically requested that they remain hidden. I’ve repeated this a number of times, and made some screen captures and a video just in case it’s hard to reproduce.

Hmm.. half an hour later, and this vulnerability is easy to reproduce, and requires no specialist skills. I’ve done it from every PC in my house now.

I’ve sent [email protected] an email explaining what’s happening, and how to replicate the behaviour. It’s getting late – I’m going to bed, and hopefully they will have responded by the morning.  In the meantime, I would recommend you consider changing your date of birth to something made-up.

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Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "The AI Fix" and "Smashing Security" podcasts. Follow him on Bluesky and Mastodon, or drop him an email.

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