Contact information on Facebook improperly shared due to software bug

Phone numbers and email addresses belonging to six million Facebook users have been improperly shared due to a software bug.

The social networking site has apologised for the glitch and said that financial details have not been compromised.

Affected users were notified by email and advised the impact was likely to be "minimal," as details would only have been shared between users who already had some connection to them.

The bug occurred when a Facebook user downloaded their account through the social network's Download Your Information (DYI) tool.