Facebook said a software bug affected nearly 7 million users who shared photos with as many as 1,500 third-party apps on Friday.
This includes photos that were never posted, the company said.
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"Our internal team discovered a photo API bug that may have affected people who used Facebook Login and granted permission to third-party apps to access their photos. We have fixed the issue but, because of this bug, some third-party apps may have had access to a broader set of photos than usual for 12 days between September 13 to September 25, 2018," the company said in a post on its developer blog.
"When someone gives permission for an app to access their photos on Facebook, we usually only grant the app access to photos people share on their timeline. In this case, the bug potentially gave developers access to other photos, such as those shared on Marketplace or Facebook Stories. The bug also impacted photos that people uploaded to Facebook but chose not to post. For example, if someone uploads a photo to Facebook but doesn't finish posting it -- maybe because they've lost reception or walked into a meeting -- we store a copy of that photo so the person has it when they come back to the app to complete their post," the company said.
The social media giant also said the bug may have affected "up to 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps built by 876 developers," the statement said. "The only apps affected by this bug were ones that Facebook approved to access the photos API and that individuals had authorized to access their photos."
Users who were affected were notified by an alert on Facebook, the company said Friday. They also recommended users log into apps and check which photos they granted access to.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
