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“Screw UP”: @facebook Fury As Emails Wreak Havoc


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Who knew emails could wreak so much havoc?

The trend is occurring particularly on older Androids, where the @facebook address has been defaulted as the primary email address for all saved phone contacts.

The Social Network has admitted there is a software ‘bug’ affecting users who chose to sync their Facebook and phone contacts on Android and BlackBerry OS, which then deleted phone contacts and replaced them with FB ones.

This then forces users to email via @facebook account rather than theri regular Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo email addresses.

The issue was reported on Hacker News from one disgruntled user:

“This morning my mother was complaining that many of the email addresses in her Droid Razr contacts had been replaced with Facebook ones. It would seem the Facebook app had been populating her address book with emails and contact photos, and decided to migrate all her Facebook-using contacts over to this convenient new system. That seems like a much greater controversy to me than Facebook hiding people’s email addresses.”

And poor old Apple iOS 6 users could also be in for a similar unwelcome shock when it is officially released later this year with beta testers currently reporting issues with the new deeper sync between Facebook and iOS user contacts on ‘6’.

And it seems Microsoft Windows 8 beta OS is also experiencing similar sync issues. However, the social network has promised there is a fix on the way “soon.”

Facebook sneaked the new @facebook addresses into the accounts of its 901 million plus users some weeks back, to the dismay of many, as they failed to make any soundings to users about the email invasion.

“In short, Facebook’s changing of users’ email address to @facebook.com is one monumental screw-up.” says Sophos Lab Graham Cluley.

“I believe the site was trying to get more people to adopt @facebook.com email addresses for their regular communications, to make their dependence on Facebook even greater.”

The Social Network says they did it to streamline all user accounts (previously Facebookers had the option to sign up to @facebook email or not since 2010).

If you don’t want your Facebook contacts email displayed you can change it by going to your account and click on the “About” tab, then hit “Contact info” and “Edit” and then you can choose which email address you want hidden/listed on your Timeline.