Facebook Stopped Phone Number Search Feature. We often search people on Facebook through their Phone Number and email address. This is really an easy way to find our friends online. But Facebook found that this feature is being used for years on the basis of ‘miscreants’. So that, British tabloid Mirror has reported that the facility has been removed from the site. The world’s largest social media Facebook said that the most of the user profiles data could be collected in this way. Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer said that they have stopped that feature. Seven percent of all searches made using a phone number to find a Facebook profile from Bangladesh.
The company policy makers and investors and founder have been under pressure since the allegations of Facebook’s nearly five million users misused for US presidential elections in 2016. The data analysis company Cambridge Analytica used the data for Donald Trump’s election campaign. Facebook said that Cambridge Analytica used almost nine millions of user data. The news has further increased the pressure on the organization. British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports, Matt Hancock said on Thursday, “Facebook has put more than one million citizens’ data at stake.” Facebook encouraged users to add phone numbers to their account before. The organization’s claim that it is easier to connect with friends and increase the security of the account. Users can decide whether to show the phone number in the profile or not, but the default system is that anyone can find out their profile by searching for someone’s phone number.
Users can not only decide to show a profile or not in a search result, but they could also keep this facility only for their friends. Earlier this year, the BBC said in a report that how people can misuse of this feature. By using personal information, a deceitful person can call them on the phone by using their name. With such phone, the fraud can also claim itself as a representative of the bank or other organization. “If you want to cheat with someone, you have a way to know their details and their names – this is a wonderful arrangement for cheating,” said Ken Munro, a security researcher at the Pen Test Partners. But Facebook said that this feature is very useful to find a friend, especially in countries where there are many people with the same name. For example, they dragged the name of Bangladesh.
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