Facebook uploaded 1.5 million users’ email addresses without permission

Now, you would be thinking that Facebook uploading email addresses of its users is not new. But what’s new is that Facebook did not even ask for permission to the users before uploading their email addresses. This was done back in May 2016 when the users first signed up to join Facebook. But the company has revealed this information just recently.

Facebook was unlikely to reveal this information if it wasn’t found out by a security researcher. The security researcher, whose name is not available, found that Facebook was asking for passwords of its users’ email accounts. Now, it is totally not acceptable to do this in the first place. But then, Facebook would upload their email contacts once the passwords were entered. Moreover, users had option to opt out from “uploading their contacts”.

Later, Facebook removed the text which said that contact upload is in process. But they forgot that the code to upload contacts was still visible. This code was found out by the security researcher and he revealed it to the world. Now, Facebook says that they have stopped email verification functionality a month ago. Also, the email data which they have uploaded will also be deleted.

However, in a shocking revelation, Facebook says that email contacts were not just used to suggest friends. Instead, this data was also used to “improve ads”.