Facebook Bug Irretrievably Nukes Email Inboxes, Contact Lists
There are, it seems, some companies that simply can't get changes right -- and if there's a Top Ten list somewhere, Facebook deserves to be on it. The company's latest bright idea, now rolled out to all 900M users, was to change your default email address from whatever it was currently to "John.Doe@facebook.com." This new "feature" was pushed through without notification or discussion, and it predictably cheesed off a number of people.
Hang on. We're not even to the unbelievably stupid part yet.
In the wake of the change, users began complaining that they'd lost address books, emails, and messages after synching with Facebook over a mobile device. Adobe employee Rachel Luxemburg described her situation thusly:
It doesn't have WiFi, but it won't change your street sign when you aren't looking.
Luxemburg, like a number of other people, had already told FB not to send her mail at her Facebook.com email address. Thanks to a bug in FB's system, address books and contact lists were synch'd using contact information from the John.Doe@facebook.com address -- overwriting all previous information in the process. Facebook, after years of dealing with issues like this, sprang into action, issued a prompt apology, and promised to fix the problem.
Just kidding. They actually blamed user error instead, claiming that people who were missing messages had simply neglected to notice the "Other" folder. Once it became clear that people had a legitimate problem, FB released this explanation:
As for the contact list issue, Violet Blue writes: "However, for people on certain devices, a bug meant that the device was pulling the last email address added to the account rather than the primary email address, resulting in @facebook.com addresses being pulled." The problem is worse for iOS 6 users, because that app allows for invisible address book updates that you aren't aware of and don't consent to. As a result, iOS 6 users now have an undeletable set of FB contact information stuffed in with all the previous contacts. One iOS 6 user told Gizmodo: "Since Facebook changed the email addresses on contacts, I've actually lost every single one of my email addresses including those for work. Emails to my boss have gone unanswered as they've been going to his Facebook!"
Is there any reason to use this service? Ever?
Hang on. We're not even to the unbelievably stupid part yet.
In the wake of the change, users began complaining that they'd lost address books, emails, and messages after synching with Facebook over a mobile device. Adobe employee Rachel Luxemburg described her situation thusly:
Today, a co-worker discovered that his contact info for me had been silently updated to overwrite my work email address with my Facebook email address. He discovered this only after sending work emails to the wrong address. And even worse, the emails are not actually in my Facebook messages. I checked. They’ve vanished into the ether.For all I know, I could be missing a lot more emails from friends, colleagues, or family members, and never even know it
It doesn't have WiFi, but it won't change your street sign when you aren't looking.
Luxemburg, like a number of other people, had already told FB not to send her mail at her Facebook.com email address. Thanks to a bug in FB's system, address books and contact lists were synch'd using contact information from the John.Doe@facebook.com address -- overwriting all previous information in the process. Facebook, after years of dealing with issues like this, sprang into action, issued a prompt apology, and promised to fix the problem.
Just kidding. They actually blamed user error instead, claiming that people who were missing messages had simply neglected to notice the "Other" folder. Once it became clear that people had a legitimate problem, FB released this explanation:
If someone sends you an email to your @facebook.com email address and it's from an address associated with a Facebook friend or friend of friend's accounts, it will go into the inbox. If it's from an address not associated with a friend or friend of friend's Facebook account, it will go into your other folder. However, if you've specified in privacy settings that you only want to receive messages from friends or friend of friends, then the message will bounce. We've noticed that in a very limited number of cases, the bounce e-mail back to the original sender may not be delivered because it may get intercepted by spam filters.In other words: "We broke your email and don't actually care."
As for the contact list issue, Violet Blue writes: "However, for people on certain devices, a bug meant that the device was pulling the last email address added to the account rather than the primary email address, resulting in @facebook.com addresses being pulled." The problem is worse for iOS 6 users, because that app allows for invisible address book updates that you aren't aware of and don't consent to. As a result, iOS 6 users now have an undeletable set of FB contact information stuffed in with all the previous contacts. One iOS 6 user told Gizmodo: "Since Facebook changed the email addresses on contacts, I've actually lost every single one of my email addresses including those for work. Emails to my boss have gone unanswered as they've been going to his Facebook!"
Is there any reason to use this service? Ever?
