New Facebook Messages Privacy Bug Found

Facebook is the most popular social network in the world. I could hardly find someone who does not have a Facebook account. With so many people on Facebook, privacy becomes a major concern if you do not wish to get annoyed by people with whom you do not wish to connect. Facebook’s privacy settings are quiet enough for a user to have a pleasant social experience without getting annoyed. But I recently found out a bug which might be a major concern to people who take their privacy very seriously.

Facebook messages privacy setting

I had been friends with Abhishek Kumar and to test Facebook’s privacy settings, I asked him to change his privacy settings for messages so that only his friends can message him (as shown above). Just after he did that, I unfriended him which was no less than a shock to him.

As you can see in the image below, I sent him a message after his privacy settings were changed and he was not my friend anymore on Facebook.

Facebook messages privacy bug

This seems to be a major privacy concern. Not minutes later, did my friend Michael Johnson tried it out with me and IT DID WORK. He was able to message me without any warning being displayed on his screen! At the end of this post you can find a video created by him which demonstrates the bug.

Facebook says

Changes to the “Who can message me” privacy setting may take up to 24 hours to take effect.

But I found that today I could message a lady who unfriended me 12 days back. Please note that she had these privacy settings enabled since many months. It could not be shown due to some privacy concerns!

I have sent an email  to Facebook informing them about this bug. I am sure you will try to test it now. Make sure you do it before Facebook fixes it 😉

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