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Facebook, the popular social networking website, had a glitch and an 'oops moment' this week as a leak exposed members' private email addresses for about 30 minutes, according to a Huffington Post report. The glitch was brief and the information was available on Tuesday for anyone online that knew to look, before Facebook quickly sealed the gap.

Oops! Facebook Leak Reveals E-Mails of Users.

"A brief rift in the Facebook privacy shield has been healed, but not before dozens of people documented it," wrote Gawker's Maureen O'Connor later. "For about 30 minutes late Tuesday, private email addresses were revealed—and then, just as suddenly, they were hidden again."


Facebook confirmed the accidental leak in an email statement to Mashable: "Last night during Facebook's regular code push, a bug caused hidden e-mail addresses to be visible briefly. The bug was detected within minutes and corrected."

PC World writer Brennon Slattery examines what may be the reason behind the glitch.