Facebook bug that asked for Superuser privileges on Android has been fixed

Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal kind of shook the users and the company is still recovering from the fallout. Following this, the social media giant has been taking the security measures quite seriously and often can be seen around boasting about its privacy. Facebook has been speaking on and off about the proactive measures that the company is using to prevent third-party apps and services on its platform. However, the social media giant's own app came under the radar again this week for asking admin privileges (superuser permissions) which are said to allow Facebook to access private data of millions of smartphone users.

It is being reported that a number of posts on Reddit, Twitter, and other online forums had highlighted the issue. Responding to the allegations Facebook is claiming that the pop-up was a result of 'coding error'. The social media giant released an official statement which said that it was only visible to the users who are using rooted devices, and it was only under certain circumstances. Now, the company claims that the issue has been resolved. Commenting on the matter Facebook said that:

"A coding error in one of our anti-fraud systems caused a small number of people running the Facebook app and certain permission management apps on rooted Android phones to see a request for additional access permissions. We do not need or want these permissions, and we have already fixed this issue. We apologize for any confusion"

Also, many of the users who are upset with the popups had been taking it to various online forums to narrate their ordeal. The users claimed that the Facebook Android app (com.facebook.katana) was asking for superuser access for the users' devices. It will be worth noting the fact that this has been going on for quite some time now, with a number of users reporting that the Facebook app was asking for root permissions.

It seems that the issue is quite widespread now, considering the number of users reporting similar issues. The reports suggest that Facebook had first started asking for the admin access with the version 172.0.0.12.93 version of its Android app. However, now it is being said that the issue is also seen on the version 172.0.0.66.93.