Facebook lost my email notification details?

[junkette]

Okay, so I just got an email from Facebook and it said this.

"Unfortunately, your email notification settings have been lost. You can reset them on the Notifications page. We're sorry for the inconvenience."

At first, I thought it was just one of those fake phishing emails. But then I noticed the address seemed legit. And when I logged into Facebook, I realized I got the same message, so basically, it is actually true that Facebook has lost this data.

I have two questions.

1) How can a company worth billions of dollars lose data. I mean, it's not like there's one server somewhere that stores the data. They must have backups and backups of all of this information.

2) What the hell is with the email? It looks extremely dodgy. They included a link inside the email directing you to Facebook. This is an extremely bad security practice. It sets a precedent that Facebook will do this, and the next time you get a phishing email, people are going to think it's going to be from Facebook and click on the link, only to be taken to a mock up site where they will steal your information. Facebook accounts getting hijacked may seem not so bad, but imagine if someone did that, and then messaged all your friends, asking them for personal/finanical details.

I just don't understand how they could've done something so stupid. I hope somebody got fired for it.

[celticbuddha]

it's called a glitch. everyone i know on facebook, including myself, got the exact same email/notification.

myspace has a ton of glitches just like this all of the time.

all it has to do with is that websites such as facebook, myspace, eharmony, etc are constantly updating things, and just like in real life, you're bound to lose something or another while you are cleaning shop.