Facebook bug exposes user photos to developers

MANILA, Philippines — Social media company Facebook on Friday issued an apology after it discovered a problem in its system that exposed millions of user photos to developers.

The company said the bug, which has already been fixed, allowed third-party applications to have access to a broader set of photos from Sept. 13 to 25.

“When someone gives permission for an app to access their photos on Facebook, we usually only grant the app access to photos people share on their timeline. In this case, the bug potentially gave developers access to other photos, such as those shared on Marketplace or Facebook Stories,” it said.

“The bug also impacted photos that people uploaded to Facebook but chose not to post,” added the company.

Facebook said the problem affected up to 6.8 million users, who have been notified of the incident. It urged affected users to log in to applications they have shared their Facebook photos to check which photos they have access to.

“We’re sorry this happened. Early next week we will be rolling out tools for app developers that will allow them to determine which people using their app might be impacted by this bug,” said the company. “We will be working with those developers to delete the photos from impacted users.”