Overview
- Reports based on court documents on Tuesday described an ex-Meta engineer who allegedly used a custom script to bypass internal checks and download about 30,000 private photos.
- Meta says it found the improper access more than a year ago, fired the employee, alerted affected users, upgraded safeguards, and referred the case to police.
- The Metropolitan Police Cybercrime Unit took the case following an FBI referral and arrested a man in his 30s in November 2025 on suspicion of unauthorised access to computer material.
- Highbury magistrates recently varied the suspect’s bail to require a May report date and to notify officers of any foreign travel plans.
- Investigators have not publicly established intent or whether the images were further shared, keeping the focus on insider access risks within large tech platforms.