Facebook staff ‘accessed user passwords’

In an interview with the Guardian, Losse said that when she joined Facebook in 2005, customer support staff were each handed a “master password,” which allowed them to log in as any Facebook user and access all their messages and data.

She said that staff needed to have access to accounts in order to manage and repair user issues, claiming that it was common practice at the time for early-stage startups to give their staff access to customers’ personal information.