A security breach in Facebook last weekend compromised the privacy of 6.8 million users, by revealing private photographs that had not been publicly shared on the social network.
The software flaw affected millions of users who used Facebook's login to grant permission to third-party applications and access photos. Facebook spoke of 1,500 applications and 876 developers affected by a case that occurred during twelve days between September 13 and 25.
The error was rectified and Facebook promised "tools for application developers that would allow them to determine which people who use their application were affected by this error" in addition to working with the developers to "delete the photos of the affected users".
The social network has enabled a tool to check if the user's data has been compromised in any way. Automatically it will be shown in a box if the account has been potentially affected by any of the third party applications involved and in that case, it will indicate the steps that the user can follow to protect his account.
Horrible year for Facebook security
The Cambridge Analytica scandal , in which the consultant had unauthorized access to data and private information of up to 87 million users, was followed by a more recent hack that became the most serious security error in the company's history. , compromising the personal information of 30 million users.
Another one of the sounded cases seriously affected the privacy when the social network turned security into business by selling the 2FA telephone numbers provided by the users in order to improve the security of access to Internet services, to send customized advertisements.
Therefore, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) recently filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook in which claims a global compensation of 5,200 million euros for Spanish users of the social network for misuse of their personal data . The lawsuit has been interposed jointly by the Euroconsumers group, the OCU in Spain and other associations in Belgium (Test-atachts), Italy (Altroconsumo) and Portugal (Deco-Proteste) and may be transcendent if the Commercial Court of Madrid (or another one where Facebook is sued) estimates the misuse of the data.
Last week it has also been known that the European regulator has launched a "legal consultation" that could lead to a multibillion fine after receiving multiple reports of data breaches that affect the company. The Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees Facebook compliance with European legislation because the company's European headquarters is in Dublin, has launched an investigation into the company for failing to protect user privacy.
Under the new data protection regulation GDPR, a fine that could reach up to 4% of Facebook's income or, in other words, 1.600 million dollars with Facebook's billing data of 2017 , could be imposed.
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