Facebook API Bug Deletes Contact Info On Phones

An anonymous reader writes "If you thought that Facebook's recent unannounced change of its users' email address tied with their account to Facebook ones was bad, you'll be livid if you check your mobile phone contacts and discover that the change has deleted the email addresses of many of your friends. According to Facebook, the glitch was due to a bug in its application-programming interface, and causes the last added email address to be pulled and added to the user's phone Contacts. The company says they are working hard at fixing the problem, but in the meantime, a lot of users have effectively lost some of the information stored on their devices."

Comments

Well deserved

[icebike]

Any fool who syncs their phone with Facebook deserves all the pain they are likely to get.
The sad part is they inflict some of this pain on innocent bystanders who they happen to have in their phone books.

Re:Well deserved

[AaronLawrence]

and nobody would have expected even Facebook to fail this hard

Huh? Facebook has pretty stated that their strategy is to try major, risky changes at high speed and retract them if necessary. A careful, backwards-compatible, regression tested release process is the opposite of what they do.

So: I would say anyone trusting facebook with their critical data is a fool.

Re:Well deserved

[HapSlappy_2222]

That's exactly what it's for. I run a small print shop, and fully half my business comes through word of mouth on the site's FB account.

Yea right a 'glitch'

[arcite]

Like most consumers are going to believe this. Of course, what right to they have to complain? FB is a free product and users willingly sign away every semblance of their privacy. Don't want to get burned? DON'T USE FB!

Dipshits

[cpu6502]

Facebook's programmers have made one mistake after another. I first noticed it when they started redirecting my tablet from the www. to the mobile site. Bastards. They shouldn't be forcing me to a site I don't want to use.

Then they changed my email to cpu6502@facebook.com. And now this story about the programmers erasing cellphone data "by mistake". Does Facebook hire monkeys to do their coding?

Re:Dipshits

[chill]

Yet still you have a Facebook account. Why exactly should they set the bar higher if all their screw-ups do is get them more free publicity?

Every time FB fucks up, the online world whines like it is the end of life as we know it. All you're doing is confirming to FB that you're addicted and can't live without them.

Why again should they change? You're their bitch and they like it that way.

Bug?

[Parafilmus]

It seems a bit disingenuous to call this a "bug."

The API was operating as designed: when a friend lists a new email address, my address book is updated to reflect it. That's normal behavior.

The "bug" in this case was Facebook's decision to modify their users' contact info without permission. The API is not to blame here.

Re:Bug?

[John Hasler]

The "bug" in this case was Facebook's decision to modify their users' contact info without permission.

Nonsense. You gave them persmission when you enabled "syncing". Only a fool would allow an advertising agency with which they have no contract to not only run unaudited software on a computer containing their only copy of important data but also permit that software write access to the data.

The real issue is with permissions

[sabri]

While a lot of people (and trolls) will bash Facebook and its coders, the real issue here is the broken permissions system on Android and Iphone.

When you install an application such as Facebook, you are forced to grant more permissions than is good for you, opening up your phone for bugs like this. Those permission systems should be fixed (as well as the bug).

Re:The real issue is with permissions

[bbecker23]

Permissions Denied has always worked well for me in limiting unwanted permissions. Admittedly, a third-party app shouldn't be needed for this, but solutions are out there.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stericson.permissions&hl=en

Re:The real issue is with permissions

[Trepidity]

In this case I don't think that's the underlying problem: even if it were opt-in, a lot of users would opt in to syncing email addresses, because in the normal case that's what they want. If a friend leaves company A and goes to company B, updating the address in your phone is convenient. What's less convenient is Facebook changing their email address when the old one was still valid and the friend didn't actually remove it...

Re:the bizarre part of FB

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

It s not that Facebook is cool, it's that social networking is cool, and there is no other realistic alternative. If I (collective I, I personally don't use facebook) have something to share to a group, Facebook is the simplest and the widest audience.

Re:BUG??

[ackthpt]

Sorry, 'bug'? Isn't that a bit like saying a behavioural 'bug' caused Facebook to kick my grandmother in the shin? (Which I don't doubt they would do if there was money in it.)

I'm under the impression it was originally planned to replace all your contacts email addresses with the new and improved friendxyz@facebook.com email addresses .. so they can, you know, route all of your email and use it for harvesting yet more information from you.