Facebook出故障 用户聊天信息被偷窥

Facebook Inc. scrambled to fix a software flaw that gave users' unintended access to their friends' private instant messages.

The popular Internet hangout Wednesday temporarily shut down its instant-messaging function while it investigated the problem and patched its system.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company said the bug was caused by an update to its software and was in effect 'for a limited period of time,' which a spokesman described as 'hours.'

The spokesman said the company was still investigating how many users had chats exposed and believes the number is small.

'Someone would have to go through multiple steps to see anything -- log-in, go to their privacy settings, use the preview tool, type in a friends name,' he said.

Facebook has had its fair share of bugs, partly reflecting frequent changes and additions to the company's website. But some incidents have escalated to major embarrassments, because of their potential to allow peeks at personal information that Facebook's users may not have intended to be widely viewed.

In one incident earlier this year, Facebook misrouted the private messages of a small number of users.

The incidents don't seem to be affecting the site's growth. Last month, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the 400 million-person service was adding users at its fastest-ever rate.

But the slip-ups could continue to serve as fodder for critics and regulators investigating how Facebook handles its users' data more broadly.