Facebook continues exposing your personal info even if you choose private mode

Facebook continues infuriating its members with unfixed privacy issues that lets anyone browsing users’ profiles access the whole profiles even if they are set to be unseen for others. It is more than in breach of the social network’s statement "The settings you choose control which people and applications can see your information."

“My problem with this issue is actually how I found the bug,” said Justin E. Dian, a software developer who brought the setting bypass to the attention of The Register. “People I didn't want requesting me as friends kept somehow finding me and requesting friendship. I keep my Facebook security settings pretty much as tight as possible and I soon realized this is how they were finding me.”

The settings to control privacy were introduced soon after the Internet community attacked Facebook with complaints and accusations that it exposed users' birthdates, friends, home towns, current location, and other information that could jeopardize their privacy. Under the new rules users could select to share specific details with the world at large, a user's Facebook friends, friends of friends, or no one at all. But, in reality profiles configured to be private remain viewable when manually browsing through the pages of users who are friends.

A Facebook spokesman said certain information, including the URL to the user's profile page, the user's picture, sex, and networks remain public no matter what settings are chosen.

“You can make it harder for people to find your profile in searches, but people may still be able to get to it in other ways (e.g., if they know your vanity URL or navigate there through a friend list or News Feed story),” the spokesman said. “The basic information that allows friends to find and connect with people is available to everyone and has no privacy settings.”

The spokesman didn't respond to repeated questions asking whether Facebook had plans to change the settings so the information was no longer public.