Although Facebook’s “Year in Review” feature can be a great way to relive the highlights of 2014, it can also bring up painful memories that some people would rather forget. In one such instance, Facebook kindly reminded one man that his daughter has passed away earlier in 2014. Fortunately, the man received a personal apology from Jonathan Gheller, Facebook’s product manager for Year in Review, who promised not to make the same mistake again.
In December, Facebook routinely lets users revisit the year by highlighting some their most popular posts and photos in an online scrapbook assembled in part from “likes” and comments. In the case of Eric Meyer, Facebook’s algorithm brought back painful memories — and prompted the company to apologize. Meyer, a Web consultant, lost his 6-year-old daughter, Rebecca, in June. When Facebook showed him his suggested year in review, his late daughter’s photo was at the center. “Yes, my year looked like that. True enough. My year looked like the now-absent face of my little girl,” Meyer wrote in a Christmas Eve post on his blog. “It was still unkind to remind me so forcefully.”