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In March, Facebook had stopped offering email password
verification as an option for people who signed up for the first
time, the company said. There were cases in which email contacts
of people were uploaded to Facebook when they created their
account, the company said.
"We estimate that up to 1.5 million people's email contacts may
have been uploaded. These contacts were not shared with anyone
and we are deleting them," Facebook told Reuters, adding that
users whose contacts were imported will be notified.
The underlying glitch has been fixed, according to the company
statement.
Business Insider had earlier reported that the social media
company harvested email contacts of the users without their
knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts.
When an email password was entered, a message popped up saying
it was "importing" contacts without asking for permission first,
the report said.
Facebook has been hit by a number of privacy-related issues
recently, including a glitch that exposed passwords of millions
of users stored in readable format within its internal systems
to its employees.
Last year, the company came under fire following revelations
that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm,
obtained personal data of millions of people's Facebook profiles
without their consent.
The company has also been facing criticism from lawmakers across
the world for what has been seen by some as tricking people into
giving personal data to Facebook and for the presence of hate
speech and data portability on the platform.
Separately, Facebook was asked to ensure its social media
platform is not abused for political purposes or to spread
misinformation during elections.
(Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli and Kanishka Singh in
Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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