Dear ****'s,
I’m writing to let you know about a recent issue with Flickr’s privacy settings that impacted some of the photos in your account.
While performing routine site maintenance, we identified a software bug that may have changed the view setting on some of your photos from non-public (i.e., private or viewable only by family and friends) to public. Affected photos were visible on Flickr between January 18th and February 7th, 2013. The affected photos were barred from appearing in any search results and they were limited to photos you've uploaded between April and December of 2012. Overall, this issue impacted only a small percentage of photos.
Protecting your privacy is one of our highest priorities so, when we discovered the bug, we took the added precaution of setting any potentially impacted photos in your account to "private.” When a photo is set to “private,” links and embeds on other websites will no longer work. This means you may have photos you intended to share with others that you may need to adjust the settings on.
We’re deeply sorry this happened. As an avid Flickr user, I’m personally committed to ensuring your memories are safe. Our team has worked hard to earn your trust, and we take it very seriously. We’ve put in place a number of additional measures to prevent this from happening again.
If you have any questions or need help with your photo privacy settings, we’re here for you. Feel free to reach out to our customer care team at http://www.flickr.com/help/with/priority.
Thank you for being part of the Flickr community.
Brett Wayn Vice President, Flickr