Facebook says 14 million users were affected by a privacy bug

The Facebook logo on a window.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

As many as 14 million Facebook users may have published posts in May that they thought were private but were actually made public, thanks to a software bug that changed their default audience.

Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, announced in a statement on Thursday that the bug "did not impact anything people had posted before — and they could still choose their audience just as they always have." She said the issue has been resolved, and those who were affected will be notified so they can review the audience of their posts published between May 18 and May 27.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.