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Facebook Messenger Kids data breach

Date: 24.07.2019

Responsible body: Facebook

Type of data breach: a technical error allowed chatting with strangers

Facebook's chat app "Messenger Kids" aims to ensure that children can only interact with users who have been authorised by their parents. Due to a technical error, this control function could be bypassed. This is because children were able to enter a group chat containing users who had not been authorised by their parents. Facebook has closed the affected group chats and informed the users. It is not known how long the error was present in Facebook Messenger Kids. The group chat function within Messenger Kids has been available since December 2017.

Source: heise

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