Facebook e-mail mess: Address books altered, e-mail lost

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57464415-93/facebook-e-mail-mess-address-books-altered-e-mail-lost/?tag=mncol

by iProject • 14 years ago

389 183 14 years ago

news.cnet.com

raganwald5• 14 years ago

“Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.”—Mark Zuckerberg

jondoh• 14 years ago

Also, "break things".

domador2• 14 years ago

That doesn't speak too well of his design ability.

raganwald5• 14 years ago

Let me see now. They have pushed their email address out into people’s address books and taken control of their private communications.

Where is the poor (business) design?

simonsarris• 14 years ago

Just to be clear, that quote is from Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars), not really Zuckerberg

kmfrk2• 14 years ago

"Pray I don't alter it any further."

raganwald5• 14 years ago

You get free unlimited photo storage, free groups, events, messaging, status updates, and more. All your friends are on it and using it. You use it to keep in touch with people around the block and around the globe in real time.

All we ask is that your private communications never again leave this application. Perhaps you think you’re being treated unfairly?

at-fates-hands2• 14 years ago

his business card also said "I'm CEO, Bitch."

ozataman• 14 years ago

Well, this is my gripe with their "go fast and break things" mantra. It works as long as you have such a highly desirable product that your users just don't care if you're doing everything right. (Or maybe you're in a non-mission-critical business, or better yet, your customers are a bunch of kids!)

I'm all for going fast and sincerely believe in "A sense of urgency", but Facebook is really lucky they're not serving more serious/demanding customers.

gee_totes• 14 years ago

Facebook is serving shareholders now. I'm hoping there are some serious repercussions internally at FB for this, because as a shareholder, I'm pissed they messed this up because the user base is upset and will continue to stop trusting Facebook.

How's the stock supposed to get back to 38 now?

chill1• 14 years ago

it isn't.

bira• 14 years ago

Did you buy at 38?

veyron• 14 years ago

Your mistake was buying into FB. Honestly it will take a major acquisition to reach 38.

Silhouette3• 14 years ago

How's the stock supposed to get back to 38 now?

Sorry to be cynical, but: it was never supposed to be at 38 in the first place. Facebook isn't worth anything close to its nominal market cap, it's just the latest very high profile pyramid scheme, or rather it would have been if they hadn't gone in so absurdly high with the IPO that even the heavyweight investors interested in risky tech stocks have mostly run away.

josephagoss• 14 years ago

If you valued Apple like Facebook was at 38 Apple would be worth over 2 trillion dollars. Also keep in mind Apple is faster growing than Facebook in terms of actually making money.

Yeah, sure there is some potential but perhaps not that much. Everyone does scream its got the same trajectory as Google, but the thing is they are already slowing down.

If the stock hits 38 again and Facebook has not figured out a marvelous new way to make a lot more money, then its all just speculation and gambling.

MrBlue• 14 years ago

"...because as a shareholder..."

A couple quick questions:

1. How much did you buy in at? 2. WHY on Earth did you buy?

chrischen2• 14 years ago

It works on facebook because no one uses facebook for anything important. But messing with iOS contacts... that's reaching out and breaking things that aren't on facebook.

pavel_lishin• 14 years ago

Define important. It's become my de facto social calendar, and it's how I communicate online with most people that aren't geographically close to me. (I'm honestly not even sure I even have their email addresses, especially not since this fiasco.)

matthew-wegner• 14 years ago

I wish their mantra for anything that touched this much personal contact/privacy information was, "slow down and think things through".

(Granted, a LOT of Facebook touches personal information, but something like this is pretty tendril-y in its reach).

wikkiwa• 14 years ago

Is it not illegal to intercept private communications without the parties' consent? Seems like this opens them up to a massive lawsuit...

sp3322• 14 years ago

It's not an intercept since obviously mail servers have to be able to receive email.

jarofgreen2• 14 years ago

I fail to see what that technical detail matters. IANAL but the practical effect of this move is to intercept private communications they didn't see before without explicit permission from the user. I'd love to see a lawyer have a good go at this one.

jfoutz2• 14 years ago

I think you'd have to show they accepted the email, then chose not to deliver it to the user.

I think this is just incompetence. hopefully, it's coupled with a little incontinence.

Alex3917• 14 years ago

But the thing is they're not supposed to get the email at all. The user goes into their contact book and selects the person they want to email, and suddenly Facebook is getting the email instead of it being sent to the person's actual email address.

emeraldd2• 14 years ago

How does this not violate CFAA? This really sounds like a company that believes it is above the law.

daeken• 14 years ago

Uh, how could it violate CFAA? It's their own systems, and their data (they own it all).

flatline3• 14 years ago

I have no clue whether this violates CFAA, but arguably they usurped address books and intercepted user's communication.

This was obviously intentional, and the timing makes sense -- Apple is rolling out address book synchronization with Facebook.

I hope this forces Apple to reconsider.

emeraldd2• 14 years ago

Maybe it's a stretch . . . But it does sound like their system is presently causing changes to occur in external systems that were not authorized. Then again, having your address book linked to FB might be construed as authorization . . .

pkulak2• 14 years ago

I've sent several emails to my Facebook email address just for shits and giggles. I've never gotten a single one to go through.

Achshar3• 14 years ago

You probably already know this but just to confirm, emails dont show up in messages. Instead they go to 'other' in messages, which no one checks anyways.

molecule• 14 years ago

That's not consistent w/ my testing:

- email from address associated w/ facebook account goes directly to facebook messages

- email from address not associated w/ facebook account does not arrive, in neither messages nor 'other'

tallpapab• 14 years ago

Thanks. I didn't know that and wondered where they went.

Fargren• 14 years ago

How long have you waited? I heard of emails to Facebook taking as much of half an hour to arrive.

pkulak2• 14 years ago

Days. Not in messages, other, or anywhere.

graue• 14 years ago

As someone who quit facebook a while back, I can't help but feel that this kind of event vindicates me. Sometimes I'm tempted to re-create a minimal account on the service just for findability, but even that small step would have been enough for facebook to hijack my contact info in a friend's phone. There really is no way to have a facebook account at all, no matter how infrequently you use it, without getting screwed over.

grourk• 14 years ago

How do you know when someone has deleted their Facebook account?

They'll tell you.

untog2• 14 years ago

Too true. It's getting tiring reading the comments of posts like this because I know it's going to be filled with people boasting about how they've already deleted their accounts/just did it. The HN crowd is a tiny, tiny minority in the pool of Facebook users, our actions are hardly representative of sea change.

emilis_info• 14 years ago

Or blog about it, or write an email.

Because people want to keep in touch with their friends, "friends", followers, etc.. They need to notify them that they are using some other way to communicate.

simonster• 14 years ago

Facebook managed to remove any opportunity to email me from my Facebook page. I'd previously set my @facebook.com email as visible only to me, so that it wasn't published to the page. They didn't change that, but they did set all of my other email addresses as "hidden from timeline."

angry-hacker2• 14 years ago

Does anyone know if there is some kind of possibility to copy facebook contacts to my phone? I'm using Android+Facbook sync. Phone is rooted... I have at least 100 people who are facebook contacts and the ones I don't want to loose, but I'm not even able to copy paste their number not to mention copying them to phone/sim card...

I know facebook doesn't want you to do it, but there has to be a way....

djloche• 14 years ago

The way I copied facebook contact information was to sync to yahoo contacts, then export yahoo contacts, then import into google contacts.

I'm not sure how this would work on/in the mobile ecosystem, but I'd have to imagine that getting on your desktop/laptop computer for a few minutes would be worth the effort of backing up the information.

sushantsharma2• 14 years ago

I just uninstalled facebook from my android phone. The facebook contacts and their information is still being shown in my phone contacts list. I am not sure if it will be deleted in future (during some sync operation). If that happens, I may install it back again. In the latter scenario, merging the contacts however will be a pain.

angry-hacker2• 14 years ago

I tried the same and contacts disappeared.

jfreak53• 14 years ago

Why would anyone on God's green earth sync their Address book to facebook!?! It's a social network for crying out loud, not a work place! WT..!!

This is what happen's when you mix work and pleasure ha ha, it's a stupid kid's playground to post stupid thing's and do nothing all day! I just can't get past it, why would anyone sync their address book to FB!? ha ha ha

untog2• 14 years ago

Why on earth do you think that everyone's address books are business-only?

sp3322• 14 years ago

Because most of my social contacts are on Facebook? And by keeping my address book synced, I don't have to keep track of every time everyone gets a new phone number or email address.

arihant• 14 years ago

The part that really bothers me - The address books on iOS 6 changed without the user noticing.

jarek3• 14 years ago

An excellent reason not to give apps write access to your address book willy-nilly. You can't trust them not to screw up.

nphase• 14 years ago

I just deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone. I have no idea if it altered any of my contacts, but this certainly does scare me enough to warrant deletion.

samstave• 14 years ago

Delete facebook from your life. Lawyer up. Hit the gym.

Words to live by.

prodigal_erik• 14 years ago

If your HN contribution is nothing more than a catchy meme, you're gonna have a bad time.

(So am I. I'm aware.)

kmm• 14 years ago

I wish I could do that. I wonder if Facebook paid HTC a lot of money to make the Facebook app un-uninstallable.

LoneWolf• 14 years ago

I have suggested this before on another thread and i'm not sure if you can do it on your phone but here it goes.

Root it and use titanium backup to force uninstall, it's how I removed all the junk.

californian2• 14 years ago

If you go to Settings >> Accounts & Sync, can you at least uncheck "Sync Contacts" for Facebook?

reustle• 14 years ago

I rooted my HTC Evo just so I could "freeze" the facebook and sprint apps. I got a good amount of extra battery life by doing so.

crazygringo• 14 years ago

The more important question is, what are Apple and Google doing allowing apps write access to a user's address book??

I can't believe anyone at Facebook was dumb enough to think this was a good idea. But at the same time, I can't believe some "rogue engineer" did this by accident. I'm curious to see what Facebook says about it.

wtallis2• 14 years ago

It sounds like this is iOS's built-in Facebook integration that was blindly trusting Facebook's data.

rjsamson• 14 years ago

FB integration isn't coming until the fall - it is currently only available in developer builds of iOS 6.

Raticide• 14 years ago

iOS6's settings allow you to block individual apps from accessing your address book.

In iOS6 any app that wants to access your address book or calendar has to request permission. It's very much like how an app requests permission to send push notifications in iOS5.

notJim• 14 years ago

Android has a feature where you can indicate that contacts from disparate services are actually the same person. For example, I have my friend Chris in my Android directory, my Gmail directory, on Facebook and on Twitter. Within my contact list, I am able to specify that these are actually all the same person. They're still separate contacts from each service though, they're just grouped together in my phone's directory.

I suspect that the problem being described happens when the only source of someone's email address was the Facebook contact, as I doubt that, e.g., a Facebook contact would overwrite someone Gmail contacts. At this point it's not clear, however.

codeka2• 14 years ago

I think you're right. If this is only changing addresses that only have Facebook as a source, then it's not really a problem with the phone. But if it's changing addresses that are in your Gmail contacts (say) then it's a serious problem. Worse if the change then propagates from your phone to your Gmail!

I think someone needs to confirm exactly what's happening here.

po• 14 years ago

They have to allow write access to some applications otherwise there can be no third-party address book apps. If there was such a permission, you can bet that facebook would have asked for it by default. You can also be sure that hundreds of millions of people would have granted it and we would be seeing the exact same problem.

The root of the problem is facebook. The important questions should be directed at facebook. We can look to Apple or Google for help, but ultimately when we install an application, we grant it our trust and Facebook routinely tramples all over it. Turns out that it's a winning strategy.

toemetoch• 14 years ago

This is a very good explanation. But it also points out that the permission system is not really helping when you want background info on what's going on - you and I know this info from a background in development. Take a look at the permissions for google maps on android as an illustration.

jakejake• 14 years ago

iOS 6 beta now prompts for permission to allow access the address book - the same way you get prompted now for gps or notification permissions when apps request it.

I noticed a lot of those permission alerts, over and over.

vijayr• 14 years ago

I really don't understand this - FB has repeatedly shown they don't give a shit about users' privacy etc. They also don't care about breaking stuff. This is not the first time it is happening, and won't be the last. So, Why are people putting their work email ids on their FB account???

rdl• 14 years ago

I wonder how high up within Facebook that decision originated and was ultimately approved.

horsehead4• 14 years ago

God damn facebook. This is why i hate their motherfuckin' asses

Achshar3• 14 years ago

What? Is this Reddit now?

horsehead4• 14 years ago

So I hold an opinion and do have substantial intellectual abilities. Does that mean I must be erudite in every post? <-- rhetorical answer because the answer is an assumed "No."

codeka2• 14 years ago

I've been complaining for ages that Facebook's contact sync was broken in Ice Cream Sandwich. I only had the app installed so I could sync my friend's contacts details with Facebook anyway, and every update I'd check to see whether they'd fixed it. But it was still broken, even after dozens of updates.

Now I'm glad it's broken!

cjdavis• 14 years ago

Agreed. I paid a buck for HaxSync to get sync working on ICS, looks like it wasn't able to overwrite the email addresses I had for people. I just disabled contact sync for HaxSync and Facebook (in case they actually decide to get it working with ICS)

californian2• 14 years ago

Just in case you were being serious... Facebook sync wasn't broken in ICS. Google intentionally disabled the feature in Gingerbread.

"Google says it is removing Facebook contacts because they are not stored locally on the phone like other contacts. This means that, unlike your Google contacts, the Facebook listings aren’t exportable so, if users decide to close their Facebook accounts, those contacts will disappear from the address book, something which violates Google’s notions of data portability."

http://blog.laptopmag.com/google-removes-facebook-contacts-f...

stretchwithme• 14 years ago

Bundling things together gives the bundler more leverage. And opens you up to paying more when they make a mistake.

An older German lady I know told me many times growing up that you should not $h|t where you eat. In other words, it pays to keep some things separate from other things.

If you value someone's contact information, keep track of it separately. And have a backup.

sugarmountain2• 14 years ago

Can any attorneys out there explain how altering computing devices to redirect and intercept email is not a criminal act when done without the knowledge or consent of the owner?

If any of us pulled the same stunt, even if authorized to access the system for other reasons, would we not be subject to prosecution? Hopefully, the same will happen to FB.

In addition to the Federal communications and cybercrime statutes, there is California Penal Code 502:

(c) Except as provided in subdivision (h), any person who commits any of the following acts is guilty of a public offense: (1) Knowingly accesses and without permission alters, damages, deletes, destroys, or otherwise uses any data, computer, computer system, or computer network in order to either (A) devise or execute any scheme or artifice to defraud, deceive, or extort, or (B) wrongfully control or obtain money, property, or data. ... (4) Knowingly accesses and without permission adds, alters, damages, deletes, or destroys any data, computer software, or computer programs which reside or exist internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network. (5) Knowingly and without permission disrupts or causes the disruption of computer services or denies or causes the denial of computer services to an authorized user of a computer, computer system, or computer network. ... etc.

It remains to be seen if there is a prosecutor with the backbone to go after this.

fl3tch• 14 years ago

Well, "Knowingly accesses and without permission... uses any data" would make the accessing and transmission of contacts (a la Path and many other apps) illegal. Except there's probably a clause somewhere that you agreed to without reading which lets them do that, and the same may be true here.

sugarmountain2• 14 years ago

While it's probably true that the EULA permits FB to read the contact list, and update it in expected ways, there are many points covered in those statutes: interception and destruction of data, making the system unavailable for its intended use, etc.

Can anyone find language permitting FB to destructively alter the contents in profoundly unusual ways so that email is redirected to FB servers for interception and delivery as FB deems appropriate?

I'd really like to see an informed legal opinion on the possible criminality of their actions.

yaix2• 14 years ago

Don't know in the US, but in Germany it is a criminal act afaik (ianal). Looking forward to the EU investigation into this. Maybe Facebook soon joins Microsoft in having to pay a billion euro fine?

jrockway2• 14 years ago

Facebook and Microsoft don't pay fines. Facebook's and Microsoft's shareholders pay the fines.

jfoutz2• 14 years ago

If you're not capable of actually pinning down the social graph, just cut links until you get to something tractable. Excellent plan.

at-fates-hands2• 14 years ago

The funny part is my friends thought I was crazy NOT to sync my Facebook contacts with my gmail contact list.

This is a great example of why I continue to keep my information segregated across different networks. For all of the nonsense Facebook keeps pulling, I continue to have a healthy does of scepticism when allowing them access to ANY of my information - let alone letting these networks interact with each other.

vibrunazo• 14 years ago

About an year ago, when the story blew up about the Facebook app sneaking through your phone contacts and adding friends numbers' to your Facebook account. I instantly deleted the Facebook app from my Android, and told my friends Facebook was clearly not reliable to have an app privilege on your phone. I called it that they would eventually do even worse, if you let them have an app in your phone. The general consensus was that I was an alarmist doomsayer extremist exaggerating over nothing.

Well, who is crazy now? :) And I repeat what I said before. If you don't delete your Facebook app. They'll keep pulling stunts like these over and over again. It's very clear from their history that they have extremely little care for customer interests.

threejay• 14 years ago

user =/= customer

rangibaby• 14 years ago

User = product

If x service is making money off their product (you, user) then you should really have at least some "rights". The key word being should.

drivebyacct2• 14 years ago

This is about the other side of things. Everyone who had you as a Facebook friend and does still have the app, is now sending you emails that you're possibly not receiving. The problem is worse than you make it out to be. Deleting your whole account and manually telling people your email address was the only way to prevent this.

dwc• 14 years ago

Yes. I don't recall if it was that dust up or another one, but about a year ago I completely deleted my FB account. As noted above, because it was clear that this was a continuing pattern.

Xuzz• 14 years ago

The part about "Facebook sneaking through contacts and adding friends' numbers" isn't correct: the Facebook app has always had a pretty clear description about what would happen if contact sync (an optional feature) is enabled.

For example, on iOS, it looked like this almost two years back: http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/iPhoneNumber.png (as seen on this page from October 2010: http://www.marismith.com/facebook-phonebook-how-safe-your-ce...) I don't have any old screenshots of the Android version, but the current app is similar to the iOS screenshots above.

antidoh3• 14 years ago

"The general consensus was that I was an alarmist doomsayer extremist exaggerating over nothing."

And they'll still call you that. Facebook's hold is too great.

darkhorn• 14 years ago

That is why you need Distributed Social Networking Protocol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Social_Networking_P...

JumpCrisscross2• 14 years ago

To be clear, does this affect iOS 5 address books? What if those contacts are pulled from an Exchange account? I sync contacts but thought that only went as far as photographs and putting those silly links to profiles.

MBCook2• 14 years ago

iOS 5 doesn't have FB integration, so it couldn't happen directly.

I don't know if the FB app can write to your contacts (although it can read them, which caused that dust up earlier in the year). That's where the danger might be for iOS 5 users.

raganwald5• 14 years ago

The FB app can update your contact photos when your FB friends update their profile pics, I actually like that feature, it’s fun and relatively harmless.

JumpCrisscross2• 14 years ago

To be clear, does this affect iOS 5 address books?

SwellJoe7• 14 years ago

Facebook simply doesn't have an ethical central core. They've shown over and over that when user privacy or security conflict with facebook's goals, they'll choose facebook over the user. It's always relatively subtle; they strive to only do what they can get away with...but it's always pushing the line, and is never based on trying to do what's right, merely avoiding backlash. Facebook, the company, is kind of a sociopath.

I wish it weren't this way. I have several friends within facebook whom I like and respect, and they produce a lot of great technology. But, I fear facebook having more power than they already have. It can only end badly for the user.

Facebook really needs a "don't be evil" moment, but I suspect it's too late, and I suspect that Zuckerberg simply doesn't think that way.

carsongross• 14 years ago

The "don't be evil" moment will be when people really start pulling the plug en masse.

I mean the advertisers.

SwellJoe7• 14 years ago

I don't advertise my company with facebook, for this very reason. I'm sure there are other people out there who feel this way. I spend about $1500 a month with Google, because they're trying not to be evil (even if they fail at the attempt sometimes). Not big money, by any means, but if a few thousand companies are opting to not advertise with facebook because they're kinda evil, it could start to be real money.

Tyrannosaurs4• 14 years ago

That's not a don't be evil moment, that's continuing to act in a self interested way, just circumstances changing what is in your best interest.

orijing• 14 years ago

Can you elaborate on why you think in this specific case user privacy or security conflict with Facebook's goals?

SwellJoe7• 14 years ago

It seems obvious, to me, but I guess I'll spell it out:

Facebook wants access to your email so badly that they're willing to steal it. This is, in my opinion, among the worst things they've ever done for user privacy (and security, but mostly privacy in this case), in a long list of subtle, and not-so-subtle tactics.

It also has very real security consequences. The automatic contact list updates for potentially millions of users means that sensitive information is likely flowing into facebook servers as we speak, without users knowing it. Passwords, medical information, company secrets, who knows what else? Someone who trusts facebook enough to use it for social interactions might not trust them enough to know about their medical conditions, proprietary company data, passwords for other sites, etc. Facebook took away that privilege for many people with this change.

All that said, here's what's important: This does nothing good for users, and a few bad things. The fact that facebook made this change, knowing that the vast majority of users were not interested in using facebook email thus far, tells us that facebook thinks first of facebook. Even if there were no privacy or security concerns, what the user wants wasn't even in the equation, when facebook did the math on this.

Splines2• 14 years ago

> I have several friends within facebook whom I like and respect, and they produce a lot of great technology.

I find this idea interesting. Can an entity like a corporation have a life beyond that which is given to it by its employees? Like the ship of theseus, can you replace all employees and still have a business that "feels" the same?

AceJohnny2• 14 years ago

Why not?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/73492989/Stephenson-1966-Cultural-...

Heinleinian2• 14 years ago

Of course. Work with any government bureaucracy and you'll notice it pretty quickly. Entire divisions can be filled with good, bright, well-meaning people, yet that division can still churn out crap work product. How is that? An organization's culture and the way incentives are aligned can quickly override any pockets of talented individuals.

polynomial• 14 years ago

Therein lies the difference between a company and a quality company.

alttab• 14 years ago

Sounds like they just tried to steal a huge network of e-mail addresses and run it through their infrastructure.

To me, this is essentially theft.

spinchange• 14 years ago

Losing emails and user dissatisfaction is just a bug. Making their email addy the primary specifically to seed everyone's contacts with it via sync-enabled apps was the feature.

FuzzyDunlop• 14 years ago

Behaviour awfully similar to that of a virus, or malware.

robomartin• 14 years ago

Amount raised on IPO: $16 Billion

Value of Zuck's shares post-IPO: $19 Billion

Pissing off 800 million users with a forced email change: PRICELESS

There are some things money can't buy. For gut-wrenching invasion of privacy there's Facebook.

curiousfiddler• 14 years ago

I feel so sad that there is no competing product out there and thus FB has the balls to repeatedly treat its users insignificantly.

It's even more sad FB is using it (the fact that all of my friends are on FB and hence I wouldn't switch) to take undue advantage in a way that I would not permit had they asked me.

skybrian• 14 years ago

As I understand it, when an email address on Facebook gets synced to a phone, that's just a cache. Any updates to the email address on Facebook automatically update the cache. When friends update their email addresses, the cache gets overwritten and you don't have their old addresses anymore.

But now, Facebook changed people's email addresses without their permission. The cache gets updated, and boom, the old address is gone.

But what makes it more scary is that people don't actually remember that they originally got the address from Facebook and they don't understand the caching behavior. All they know is that the old address is gone. So they think that email addresses that they didn't get from Facebook are also at risk.

The workaround is to manually copy email addresses from Facebook to some other system. Any email addresses you get from Facebook by automatically syncing aren't safe.

It's a pity; after all, most of the point of the system is that you shouldn't have to manually update your address book when your friends change their contact info.

tedunangst3• 14 years ago

That's an excellent explanation. It also fits the mold of just about every other "service X broke into service Y and stole my info" story, wherein people forget lots of other plausible explanations.

ams61102• 14 years ago

And a good lesson as to why you should never make unannounced changes to your user's data. They will think you "broke" something, even if it never worked the way they thought it did.

richardw• 14 years ago

Don't many phone users sync their phone contacts to Outlook and similar? So wouldn't this lead to "work email" contacts being caned by Facebook?

I just checked mine, but seems all my contacts only have phone numbers since I use Gmail and GApps web-only accounts.

danmaz74• 14 years ago

I wonder if this isn't a breach of the stricter privacy laws we have in Europe. Redirecting the email I send to my frieds to Facebook's servers without asking for my consent looks very suspicious to me.

Heinleinian2• 14 years ago

Anyone else find it odd that the day the facebook email change scandal broke, they announced Sandberg was their first ever female on the board? Really looked like they had a distraction press release in the pipeline for exactly this scenario, and they popped the top as soon as there was backlash.

yaix2• 14 years ago

The depressing thing about this is that people will notice that email doesn't work and then use fb messages even more. I mean, how many people are still with one of the major banks, only a few years after their greedy behavior caused so much harm?

superxor• 14 years ago

OMFG, are they this desperate to fight off Gmail!

People call G+ a desperate attempt, but this is ground-bottom. There's only word to describe this, disaster.

antidoh3• 14 years ago

Here's my fear. I deleted my FBook account a couple years ago. And it seems to be at least inactive, but I assume there is still an entity representing "me" in some state at FBook, because that's how FBook rolls.

As I understand this latest feature, if I am a contact on someone else's phone, and their FBook app notices that I am a FBook user, that person's entry for me get's slammed to now point to me@FBook. So when that person emails me, it no longer goes to me@me.com, it goes to me@FBook.com. Which is an address that may or may not exist, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that FBook doesn't respond with a no such address, it just consumes the data. And I'm suddenly unreachable.

accountswu• 14 years ago

This is why I never upload my pictures or videos on facebook and I have my home town and current city are set to Valhalla and Atlantis.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/15/facebook-lie-terms-of-servi... "Mr. Schnitt suggests that users are free to lie about their hometown or take down their profile picture to protect their privacy..."

The clarification from Barry Schnitt (Facebook’s Director of Corporate Communications and Public Policy) was even worse:

"I think WSJ is paraphrasing. What I said is profile picture and current city are optional. You don’t have to include a profile picture or you can include a picture of your dog or anything you like. Similarly, you don’t have to indicate your current city or you can indicate that your current city is “Atlantis”, “Valhalla” or, again, anything you like. We hope people will use accurate information if they are comfortable doing so because that information helps them to be found by their friends, which is part of the point of joining the site."

bogger• 14 years ago

Quite apart from the ethical ins and outs of this, it's simply a buggy release.

I played around with my new (and unwanted) email address and found the following:

1. Email sent to the new facebook address from the gmail account associated with my profile gets delivered to my facebook messages.

2. Email sent to the new facebook address from another gmail account I own is not delivered. It simply disappears.

This is basic stuff. I guess they did like no testing before they released this f*up to their billion or so users.

mkramlich• 14 years ago

I hope someone chimes up again saying how Facebook has so many smart engineers on staff. This looks like either an intelligence failure, or an ethics failure, or a little of both.

grannyg00se• 14 years ago

At first I was wondering what Facebook has to do with email.

Then I read this:

"alterations that had begun in their contacts and address books outside Facebook -- valid e-mail addresses were being changed for @Facebook without people's awareness"

WTF?! This sounds like the facebook app has access to modify the contents of a phone's address book without direct user action. Is that what's happening here? I just checked all my contacts and everything seems fine (BB7.1)

Facebook e-mail mess: Address books altered, e-mail lost

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