A former worker at Meta is being investigated by police over suspicions he downloaded some 30,000 private Facebook images.
The engineer is believed to have designed a programme to access the personal pictures while avoiding internal security checks, court documents show.
The alleged invasion of Facebook users’ privacy is being investigated by a specialist detective from the Metropolitan Police’s cybercrime unit.
Meta has confirmed that the suspected breach was discovered more than a year ago and the company itself referred the matter to police in the UK.
It added that affected Facebook users have been notified, the worker was sacked and it says it has upgraded its security systems.
The engineer under suspicion, who lives in London, is currently on police bail while the criminal investigation continues.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the investigation, saying: “Protecting user data is our top priority.
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“After discovering improper access by an employee over a year ago, we immediately terminated the individual, notified users, referred the matter to law enforcement and enhanced our security measures.
“We are co-operating with the ongoing investigation.”
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