Facebook quickly fixes privacy leak in new timeline, group says

Facebook quickly fixed a privacy leak in its new timeline after being alerted to the problem, according to a watchdog that follows the social-networking site closely.

Europe v. Facebook, an Austrian student organization that has filed complaints in Europe over Facebook's privacy practices, said it found the redesign allowed "friends of friends" to see all of the events a user attended even if the person's privacy settings only permitted their friends to see the events. The timeline changes also allowed someone to see batches of event activity under a heading called "events," according to Europe v. Facebook. Details of events attended can be deleted, but it must be done manually, which Europe v. Facebook said could take "hours." After it was notified, Facebook fixed the problem within a couple of hours by getting rid of the "events" heading, Europe v. Facebook said.