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Facebook bug leaks members' birthday data

By: Robert McMillan On: 16 Jul 2008 For: IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau) Creator

Seven months after the Beacon fiasco, the popular social networking site has botched its efforts to protect sensitive personal data. A Sophos techie discovered the error while looking at Facebook’s new design

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A glitch in a test version of Facebook's Web site inadvertently exposed the birthdays of Facebook's 80 million members this week.

The bug was discovered over the weekend by Sophos Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley. While checking out Facebook's new design, Cluley noticed that the birth dates of some of his privacy-obsessed acquaintances were popping up when they should have been hidden.

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Tags: beta site, social networks, developers

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Robert McMillan is a contributor to the International Data Group (IDG) News Service, which publishes global technology stories from bureaus around the world to more than 300 publications in more than 60 countries.

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