Facebook says it's "unintentionally downloaded" email contacts from 1.5 million users without permission

The social networking giant Facebook said Wednesday night that it had perhaps "unintentionally" downloaded the contacts of 1.5 million users of its site to its site, without their permission or without their knowledge, when & nbsp; They have opened a new account since May 2016.

Users affected by this incident were not limited to the United States, according to a source familiar with the matter.

These contacts have not been shared with anyone and Facebook is deleting them, said a company spokesperson at CNBC.

"We solved the underlying problem and we notified the people whose contacts were imported. People can also view and manage the contacts that they share with Facebook in their settings, "said the spokesman.

Business Insider first announced the news and said that a security researcher had noticed that the tech giant was inviting some users to enter their email password when they had opened an account for verify their identity.

Facebook said it was customary to go through one step of the account verification process, allowing some users to confirm their email address and voluntarily import their contacts to the site. This feature was intended to help them find their friends more effectively and improve the ads, according to the company.

This process was redesigned in May 2016. Although the wording explaining the step was removed, the feature itself was not, said Facebook. As a result, email contacts were always uploaded to the site without users being aware of it.

The incident reported is the latest in a long list of privacy concerns and controversies that weigh on the technology giant, which is the focus of a increased surveillance by the government.

Facebook has faced fierce public criticism after being revealed that a UK-based policy consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, had leveraged the company's business model to influence the US presidential election. 2016. Since then, Facebook has been subject to increasing scrutiny of privacy scandals were unveiled in 2018.

For its part, CEO Mark Zuckerberg called for stricter regulation of the internet and a more active role of governments.