Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Mark Zuckerberg's private Facebook photos revealed: Security 'glitch' allows web expert to access billionaire's personal pictures

Facebook user reportedly exploited security loophole to access pictures
Some images of Facebook CEO at home with girlfriend have never been seen
He is pictured with Priscilla Chan at their $7million house in Palo Alto

A series of photos from Mark Zuckerberg’s private Facebook page were made public today after a web expert managed to gain access thanks to a glitch in the social networking site.

The bug in the website’s photo reporting tool - which Facebook says was only temporary and has now been fixed - meant that users could access others’ pictures even if they were private.

Users were able to look at the private photos by ‘reporting’ a profile picture as ‘inappropriate’, which then saw other photos displayed, such as those of Facebook CEO Mr Zuckerberg.




Private photos: Mark Zuckerberg holds up plates of chicken he appears to have just killed then fried himself


Loving: Mark Zuckerberg is pictured with his long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan playing with their puppy



Girl and boy: Some of the photos can be viewed publicly on Facebook, but others are said to be secret

A Facebook spokesman told CNET the glitch happened because of ‘one of our most recent code pushes’ but it was only live for a short time and ‘not all content was accessible’.

The reporting system was disabled and will be brought back to normal once the bug has been fixed by the website’s developers, the spokesman added, restating the site’s commitment to data privacy.

The glitch and resulting private photos of Mr Zuckerberg went viral when software engineer Mike Rundle, of Raleigh, North Carolina, posted a link to them on photo-sharing website Imgur.

But Mr Rundle said he first saw the photos linked from a discussion on the online forum Hacker News.



Man's best friend: Many of the reportedly private photos on the Imgur website involve Mr Zuckerberg's puppy



Big names: Mr Zuckerberg is pictured speaking to President Barack Obama, with Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt in the background. The late former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was also at the meeting



Cheers: Mr Zuckerberg, who is worth $17.5billion, holds a toast with friends in his kitchen



Trick of treat: He kneels with his girlfriend who holds a bowl of Snickers and other chocolate bars on Halloween

Members of a body-building forum first picked up on an alleged security flaw which allows users to access personal photos when they try to report ‘inappropriate’ profile pictures, reported CNET.

Mr Zuckerberg’s long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan is pictured in most of the photos. Some of them can be viewed publically on his public Facebook profile, but others are said to be private.

The 27-year-old, of Palo Alto, California, has a staggering fortune of $17.5billion and treated himself to a $7million five-bedroom, five bathroom home earlier this year in May.

The 1903 home with its outdoor walls and trees offers far more privacy than his former 3,800 sq ft rented house. It has an entertainment pavilion with an outdoor fireplace and built-in barbeque.



Whale of a time: The happy couple are pictured together at a restaurant in one of the private photos



Sushi time: The former Harvard University student inspired the 2010 film The Social Network



Dinner party: Mr Zuckerberg and Miss Chan are pictured with friends and their puppy inside their kitchen



All smiles: Mr Zuckerberg, left, poses with an unknown man on a sunny day by the beach

The New York dentist’s son has lived in Palo Alto almost continuously since he moved Facebook to Silicon Valley straight from his Harvard dormitory room in 2004.

The technology genius, originally from Dobbs Ferry in New York, inspired the 2010 film The Social Network, in which he is played by Jesse Eisenberg.

Mr Zuckerberg has vowed to embark on a mission to eat only what he killed and has reportedly been learning how to hunt with the aim of killing a bison which he will devour once it is dead.

The young tycoon, whose girlfriend is Priscilla Chan, has been studying how to fire a gun powerful enough to bring down one of the 2,000lb beasts and even got a licence to hunt, reports said.

He has killed chickens, lobsters, a pig and a goat as part of his crusade for responsible eating - and says he only wants to eat meat if he knows exactly where it came from and had a hand in its demise.


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