All Facebook has revealed that Facebook has a privacy flaw that is exploitable by hate groups. Basically, Facebook users can search out other users on terms like “Christian lesbians” and then leave abusive messages for those users if they disagree with their lifestyle choices - even if the “Christian lesbian” concerned had a non-public profile.
In the IT security world, this problem has a name - it is called “stupidity” or “we screwed up”. Facebook should close this loophole, and soon.
There are two ways of handling this sort of thing when a person is searching for information that they are not allowed to see:
- You tell them that it is not available for a specific reason, and if you want to be humane about it, tell them what that reason is and what they should do if they want to access it (it becomes a known unknown).
- You don’t tell them that it is not available (it remains an unknown unknown).
Option 1 is only useful where the person concerned has a potential need to know the information and there is some mechanism for providing it. I can’t see having a bug up your behind about someone else’s lifestyle choice as a legitimate need to know - what do you think?
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