The 'hijackers', who call themselves Control Your Info, insist they will not misuse the data as they only want to raise awareness of the dangers.
They found if the administrator of a Facebook group leaves, any user can appoint themselves as a replacement.
Hundreds of groups have been affected, all receiving the same warning: "Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group.
300m use Facebook worldwide
"This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook.
"If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severly (sic).
"For example we could rename your group and call it something very inappropriate and nasty, like 'I support paedophile's rights'. But have no fear - we won't."
The renegade group's website claims the security side of social media has been "more or less neglected".
They have posted a YouTube video which warns while gaffes made in real life can be repaired, "your online mistakes will be there forever".
Facebook said in a statement: "There has been no hacking and there is no confidential information at risk.
"The groups in question have been abandoned by their previous owners, which means any group member has the option to make themselves an administrator in order to continue communication to the group.
"Group administrators have no access to confidential information and group members can leave a group at any time.
"For small groups, administrators can simply edit a group name or info, moderate discussion, and message group members.
"The names of large groups cannot be changed nor can anyone message all members.
"In the rare instances when we find that a group has been changed inappropriately, we will disable the group, which is the action we plan for these groups." ( sky.com )
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