Private Posts on Facebook Revealed

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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/private-posts-on-facebook-revealed/

January 18, 2013, 6:52 pm
Private Posts on Facebook Revealed
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Facebook wants its users to share what matters to them. Now some status updates have been shared far and wide, well beyond the intended audience.

Facebook users who have a Google Chrome extension for Storify, a tool that strings together social media material and is favored by bloggers and journalists, are learning that a status update posted on Facebook and meant to be seen by members of a closed Facebook group appears on Storify, visible to the public. It was discovered by a public relations consultant, Julie Pippert, and shared on a business news site, AG Beat.

Storify co-founder Burt Herman points out that a member of the private Facebook group would have had to click on the “storify” link and publish it onto the site. Mr. Herman said the incident should remind people about sharing things online with greater care. “That media may not have been intended for a wider audience, but it’s up to you if you want to publish it more widely,” he said on a company blog.

A Facebook spokesman, Fred Wolens, said on Friday afternoon that the error applied to Facebook users who also use a Chrome browser extension for Storify. In effect, the browser extension intercepts the message posted on Facebook and splashes it up on Storify. Mr. Wolens said the company was investigating how to solve the problem.