As a matter of fact, an appalling number of users are complaining that their new e-mail address Facebook updated automatically, have something else to fret about — stating that their contacts’ e-mail addresses on phones and personal devices have been modified without their permission — and their e-mail communication is being intercepted and losing unknown amounts of e-mail.
The latest grumble with Facebook to erupt at the blogosphere apparently affects people with mobile devices or other software that synchronizes their address book with their Facebook contacts.
Among some, is the one very irritated user is Adobe employee Rachel Luxemburg narrated the problem she faced after Facebook modified the default e-mail addresses for all of its users. On her personal blog she writes:
“Today, a co-worker discovered that his contact info for me had been quietly updated to overwrite my work email address with my Facebook email address. He unearthed this only after sending work emails to the wrong address,” wrote Luxemburg. “And even worse, the emails are not actually in my Facebook messages. I checked. They have disappeared into the ether. For all I know, I could be missing a lot more emails from friends, colleagues, or family members, and never even know it. F*** you very much Facebook.”
Last week, Facebook users found out that the company has silently altered the e-mail addresses displayed on their Timeline pages to a @Facebook.com e-mail address. On Twitter and in Facebook’s community forums, users furiously expressed their anger stating that Facebook seemingly made the change without letting them know first.
In fact, as the issue picks the heat, there might be more cause for concern as Luxemburg’s emotional response was not alone. Many notable blogs and publishing companies berated Facebook for once again introducing a feature without the consent of its users. “Pushing change on users now seems to be standard modus operandi for Facebook: announce a feature, allow users to opt in for a while, and then force the feature on all remaining users many months later,” mentioned Jill Duffy of PC Magazine.
“The problem, as most of us are aware, is if you haven not opted into the new feature, service, or change, it surprises you when it arrives. You have not had time to read up on what it means or how it will change your Facebook account. You do not know what is private and what is exposed,” added Duffy.
Apart from the above, a number of complaints and warnings from annoyed users’ about the new problem from around the web has been posted by CNET’s Violet Blue.
Blue also mentioned that “automatic altering of users’ contacts without intimation was, in fact, disturbingly actually built into Apple’s new iOS 6 Facebook integration: Facebook for iOS will change address books without any warning.”
Moreover, she directs to a post on Hacker News in which one person using an iOS 6 preview complained that the primary e-mail addresses of his or her contacts were changed.
Apparently, CNET has approached Facebook for a comment, among other publications, but the social media giant have no response at this time and has yet to address the issue.
Meanwhile, if you are concerned about losing your e-mail you should immediately inspect or remove anything that syncs your contacts with Facebook. And to change your e-mail address in Facebook, go to your Timeline, click “About,” then the “Edit” link next to the “Contact Info” box.
Nevertheless, the move was an obvious attempt by Facebook to further integrate its SMS, email and messaging technology. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg once touted that the company’s messaging system would change the way we communicate, but that never seemed to come to fruition.