Facebook Blames A 'Bug' For Not Deleting Your Deleted Videos
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CBS Local -- As if the controversy surrounding Facebook's privacy and data sharing couldn't get any worse, a new report has found that videos users thought were deleted were not actually erased by the company.
According to a report by New York Magazine, a user downloaded their Facebook archive and was surprised to find several recordings that had been made years earlier and supposedly deleted. New York says the problem was discovered in "pre–Facebook Live era" videos, which users would regularly leaving on their friend's walls.
"Facebook had a feature that let users film videos via webcam on Facebook itself... Once you were done filming, Facebook would show you a preview of your clip," the report explains. "If you decided to do another take, you could click to discard that video and try it again. Except, the video wasn't actually deleted. Instead, Facebook apparently saved your unused clip."
Facebook is blaming the unauthorized video storing on "a bug" that failed to permanently delete user content. "We investigated a report that some people were seeing their old draft videos when they accessed their information from our Download Your Information tool," a Facebook spokesperson told Tech Crunch.
"We discovered a bug that prevented draft videos from being deleted. We are deleting them and apologize for the inconvenience," the company added. Facebook claims the "deleted" videos were never shared publicly however, they gave no indication if the deleted outtakes were used to gather information for targeted advertising or third party data sharing.
The social media giant has been embroiled in scandal after it was revealed that 50 million users had their personal information mined off Facebook by data firm Cambridge Analytica. Another report also uncovered that Facebook collected call and texting data from Android phone users for several years.