If you're on Facebook, no doubt you'll have seen many of these 'Year In Review' posts that Facebook generates.

The app, which scans your photos and posts throughout the year and automatically selects them by an algorithm, is now a common fixture across the social media network.

While some show images pulled from various happy events throughout the year, it hasn't been quite so popular with those who've suffered losses throughout the year.

In one such case, a web designer based in the US claimed that his recently-deceased daughter featured prominently in his own Year In Review.

Eric Meyer's seven-year old daughter passed away in 2014 from brain cancer, a fact that Facebook reminded him of when it placed an image of her in its app.

Meyer wrote in a blog post that "this inadvertent algorithmic cruelty is the result of code that works in the overwhelming majority of cases, reminding people of the awesomeness of their years, showing them selfies at a party or whale spouts from sailing boats or the marina outside their vacation house."

"But for those of us who lived through the death of loved ones, or spent extended time in the hospital, or were hit by divorce or losing a job or any one of a hundred crises, we might not want another look at this past year."

Facebook have since reached out to Meyer and apologised for the mix-up, saying that it wasn't intended to cause him further grief.

 

via Washington Post