Flickr Software Bug Made Private Photos Public

It has come to light that some photos marked private may have been temporarily made public on Flickr, due to a software bug.

The bug is only reported to have affected a limited number of members.

The bug may have made certain private photos visible to anyone who wanted to view them on Flickr. Flickr sent out an email to those members affected, stating "affected photos were visible on Flickr between 18 Jan and 7 Feb, 2013." But it also added that these photos were not searchable in Flickr search or indexed in search engines during the time they were made public.

The bug only affected photos that were posted on the site between April and December of 2012.

Due to the bug, Flicker has set any 'limited share' photos in affected user's accounts that were uploaded between these dates to the private setting. This may mean that embeds and links on cartain photos have been broken. "you may have photos you intended to share with others that you may need to adjust the settings on" Stated Flickr.