‘Control Your Info’, privacy advocates hijack Facebook groups
Hundreds of Facebook groups have been hijacked in recent days by users pointing out what they say is a weakness in how the social-networking site handles the administration of its groups.
By Tuesday morning, 286 groups had apparently been renamed Control Your Info and had a new message posted to their walls.
“Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group,” the message reads. “This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook. If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severly [sic].”
According to Control Your Info, when Facebook group administrators step down, anyone else can take over their duties — giving them access to members’ personal information, the ability to send messages to all members of the group and the authority to make changes to that group.
“For example we could rename your group and call it something very inappropriate and nasty like ‘I Support Pedophiles’ Rights,’ ” the message continued. “But have no fear. We won’t.”
Among the groups renamed “Control Your Info” on Tuesday were a “Twilight” fan group, supporters of a high school football team and patrons of a Virginia winery.
In a statement, Facebook said no confidential information has been placed at risk.
“The groups in question have been abandoned by their previous owners, which means any group member has the option to make themselves an administrator in order to continue communication to the group. Group administrators have no access to confidential information and group members can leave a group at any time,” said a Facebook spokesperson.
“For small groups, administrators can simply edit a group name or info, moderate discussion, and message group members. The names of large groups cannot be changed nor can anyone message all members.
“In the rare instances when we find that a group has been changed inappropriately, we will disable the group,” the spokesperson said.
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