Business & Tech

Are You Seeing Private Messages on Your Facebook Wall?

Many users complain formerly private messages are now publicly visible. Facebook denies it. Are you seeing this problem?

Some things are intended to stay private. Facebook  is used daily by over 800 million “active” users, according to their press offices. But did the internationally popular social media outlet recently allow private messages to be publicly displayed?

Many users claim “yes.” According to an article in the New York Daily News, the social media chaos began on Monday with reports in France.

Users there claimed that messages as old as 2006 to 2009 were being viewed on their personal Timeline features.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline,” Facebook said in a statement, according to Agence France-Press. “Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users’ profile pages.”

Users on TechCrunch.com and popular blogs like “What I Wore Today” have claimed otherwise.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“I have private messages published to my wall, as did my wife and many friends,” said one user on TechCrunch.

Facebook spokespersons say that is not the case.

“People went back and forth with wall posts instead of having a conversation,” the spokesperson said to the New York Daily news.

Read more about the internationally story on the New York Daily News.

Have you noticed this problem on your own Facebook account? We’d love to hear from you. Share your experiences with Patch in the comments below.

Keep up with South Gate - Lynwood Patch Latino by subscribing to breaking news alerts, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter. Have an event or announcement you'd like to publicize? Submit them for free. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from South Gate-Lynwood