Facebook unintentionally uploaded users email contacts without consent

Social networking giant Facebook said Wednesday night it may have "unintentionally uploaded" email contacts of up to 1.5 million users on the site, without their permission or knowledge, as they signed up for new accounts since May 2016. [19659002] div > div.group> p: first-child "/>

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

These contacts were not shared with anyone and Facebook deleted them , a company specialist told CNBC.

"We have solved the underlying problem and notify people who have contacted contacts. People can also look at and manage contacts they share with Facebook in their settings, the spokesman says.

Business Insider first reported the news and said a security researcher noticed that the tech giant had caused some users to enter their email passwords when they opened an account to verify their identity.

Facebook said it used to have a step in the account verification process where some users had the opportunity to verify their email address and voluntarily import email contacts on the site. The feature was meant to help them find their friends better and improve their ads, according to the company.

This process was redesigned in May 201[ads1]6. While the language, which explained the step, was removed, the function itself was not, Facebook said. Email contacts were still uploaded to the site without the users being aware of it.