A former Meta employee is under criminal investigation on suspicion of downloading about 30,000 private images from Facebook.
According to the investigation, he developed a special program to access photos bypassing internal security systems while still working at the company.
A former Meta employee is under criminal investigation on suspicion of downloading about 30,000 private images from Facebook.
According to the investigation, he developed a special program to access photos bypassing internal security systems while still working at the company.
Meta said the alleged leak was discovered over a year ago, and the company itself referred the matter to UK law enforcement, The Guardian reports .
The company added that affected Facebook users have already been notified of the incident, the suspect has been released, and the company's security systems have been updated.
The suspect, who lives in London, is being held on bail pending a criminal investigation.
According to police, the man allegedly accessed and downloaded approximately 30,000 private images of Facebook users while working at Meta.
“It is alleged that he created a script designed to bypass Meta’s internal detection systems, which allowed him to do this,” the court document states.
Two weeks ago, the court changed the bail conditions: now the man must report to the police in May, and is also required to notify law enforcement agencies of any plans to travel abroad.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the criminal investigation, saying, “After we discovered the unauthorized access by an employee over a year ago, we immediately fired the individual, notified users, referred the matter to law enforcement, and increased our security measures.”
“We are cooperating with the ongoing investigation,” the company added, emphasizing that protecting user data is their top priority.
