Facebook probe after data breach of 6.8m users

FACEBOOK is set to be investigated by the Irish Data Protection Commission after the social network reported a series of breaches affecting up to 6.8million of its users.

A bug which entered the system may have exposed the personal photos of those users and allowed third-party apps access to the images.

The Data Protection Commission here is the site’s lead regulator within the EU and is investigating the unintended access to users’ photos by third-party apps.

The bug was uncovered in software which allowed the Facebook login portal to be used to give apps permission to access photos.

However, the glitch resulted in the apps having greater access to the personal photos than the user had originally agreed to.

The bug reportedly allowed the apps access to photos that users had begun to post to the social media site but later cancelled. According to the network, the glitch affected the site for 12 days between September 13 and 25 before it was removed.

In a statement, the Irish Data Protection Commission said that it was aware of the breaches and that an investigation was under way.

‘With reference to these data breaches… we have this week commenced a statutory inquiry examining Facebook’s compliance with the relevant provisions of the GDPR [EU General Data Protection Regulation],’ a spokesperson said.

Facebook said it was working with the Irish Data Protection Commission to investigate the matter.

Last year the site was subject to criticism as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal which affected millions of its networks users.