Facebook security flaw lets you view friends chats

[Hoffman]

TechCrunch has pointed out a shocking security flaw in Facebook that allows users to see the live chats of any of their friends. The discovery furthers the concern that Facebook's security is not yet where it needs to be.

The problem occurs within an actual security feature of Facebook. There is an option in privacy settings, under personal information and posts, that allows you to preview your profile as it would look to one of your Facebook friends. You are then able to select one of you friends and view it, literally, from their eyes.

The feature works so well, that if your friend happens to be live chatting at the time, you will see their conversations in action. Steve O'Hear posted the video below, showcasing the problem. For now, it seems that Facebook has turned chat off "for maintenance," though they have yet to make a public statement regarding the problem.

[video=youtube;ny8ui4delEo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny8ui4delEo[/video]

 

[Slaz]

I don't use Facebook chat as far as I know, and even then, nothing's really personal on my page.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Same here, as soon as Facebook chat was introduced I disabled it.

I have no super secret personal information on Facebook either, as soon as applications were introduce that can read all the information on your profile I removed the majority of stuff on my info page.