The fact is that when you register with Instagram, the service assures you that the email and date of birth are data that are hidden from other users. However, security expert Saugat Pokharel drew attention to a bug in an experimental feature of the Facebook Business Suite Tool, a special Internet utility for business account owners. In early October, Facebook added the ability to view additional recipient data when sending messages to Direct. It was supposed to work only for users who read marketing messages, but in the end, the utility showed this information even for closed accounts and those who have limited receiving messages in Direct. In the event of a restriction on receiving messages, such mailings were simply not marked on the user.

Facebook released a fix shortly after it received the bug report and paid the finder a bounty. The company also conducted an internal investigation, from which it turned out that there were no cases of abuse of this function. This became known from the Facebook statement to The Verge. According to Pokharel, Facebook fixed the issue within hours after he notified the company.