When Facebook learned of the Cambridge Analytica data breach in 2015, they did not inform the public immediately they waited over two years until March 2018 to do so. Between 2015 and 2018, 533 million Facebook users had their personal data, including their phone numbers and personal information such as where they live, work, and more leaked online, according to The Guardian. So now that 533 million Facebook users’ personal data has been leaked online, how can you protect yourself? Here are some tips on how to keep your own personal data safe—and what you can do if it has already been leaked online.
What happened?
The latest update on Facebook’s massive data breach concerns what may be the largest leak of personal data ever – affecting over 533 million users. As a result, these individuals are now left with uncertainty and vulnerability.
How Did This Happen? The social media giant has admitted that at least 50 million users have had their phone numbers and email addresses accessed, with another 14 million having their birth dates, locations, and search history data exposed. The latest update follows a previous statement released by Facebook in October which stated that an estimated 270,000 users were affected as a result of third-party apps misusing private data. At that time it said there may be further regrettable incidents as it carried out a review into these apps. However, it now appears that hackers exploited vulnerabilities in its View As feature to steal massive amounts of personal information on account of poorly protected user access tokens. How Did This Happen? – Third Paragraph: How Can I Protect Myself?
The data was found by a student
Anyone can download as many copies of this database as they want and then post it on other websites, upload it to torrent sites, or even sell it. This is what allows web users who have just been harmed by hackers to find evidence that could potentially be used in court. It also makes it difficult for a company like us to figure out where to start with all the complaints coming in.
In total, over five hundred thirty-three million Facebook users’ phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online by a student, who found them by using an application called Facebook Graph Search. In fact, people are having so much trouble navigating all these social media platforms – especially on issues like privacy settings – that we created special programs designed to help streamline this process.
The students will be working with the Irish Data Protection Commission to notify affected parties
An important element of GDPR is notifying users if their personal data has been compromised. In a recent event, it was found that 533 million Facebook users’ phone numbers and personal data had been leaked online. The Irish Data Protection Commission has partnered with this project to notify all those affected by this leak and make sure they are taking appropriate measures to protect themselves.
The problems faced by data breaches such as these cannot be overstated, as it has severe consequences for an individual’s privacy rights. It is the responsibility of both organizations and individuals to take reasonable precautions when storing and transmitting data that identifies them personally or their device to ensure that their rights are upheld under GDPR.
The stolen information includes status updates, comments, reactions, account names, shares, and likes before 2014
Recent reports show that information from up to 533 million users has been leaked on an unprotected server. The data includes phone numbers and other personal data as well as all information before 2014. Users of this site have likely had their personal details exposed, so it is advised to change your passwords and review your privacy settings. Not only do you need to protect yourself but also inform those in your friend list if you think that they may be affected. This breach highlights how more needs to be done in order for social media sites like Facebook to provide better security and privacy. They must take charge in pushing for better regulation and enforcement from organizations such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
You might be wondering what else is happening with this news.
Some businesses that were not directly affected by this leak could still be at risk
Although your business might not have been affected by this leak, this recent data breach can still cause you to lose clients. For example, Facebook users’ phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online which could make some customers wary of giving out their personal information to another company’s site. This incident could impact sales through slow customer acquisition or a decline in conversions due to lackluster trust in your website’s privacy and security. In other words, now more than ever businesses need to implement some sort of plan for dealing with these types of situations.
In general, anyone who had their profile information connected to third-party apps or websites through Facebook is affected.
On Sunday, September 25th Facebook alerted its users that a data breach had been discovered. The hacker claims to have obtained access to the personal data of over 50 million Facebook profiles and of those nearly half are active. The personal data includes profile pictures, birth dates, locations, religious beliefs, and more. While anyone who had their profile information connected to third-party apps or websites through Facebook is affected, certain types of data (like phone numbers) will only be accessed if it was previously inputted on their page and friends list). This means that many profiles without a public phone number will not be compromised by this leak as well as people with private or hidden information on their account pages).
1) Who did the hacker attack?
If you are affected, you will receive an alert from Facebook on your news feed
If you have not checked your Facebook settings yet, please do so immediately. The last thing you want is to be one of the 50 million Facebook users who has had their phone number and personal data leaked online. In addition to having access to your data, there’s a real possibility hacker will sell this information for less than $5 each on dark web markets. Hackers might try to use or share this information in unethical ways.
The file with all the user information can be found on GitHub (a site for sharing source code). It has since been removed.
On October 12th, 2018, The New York Times released a report of personal data that had been collected from Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica. However, while The New York Times reported 50 million users affected, a new GitHub user wrote that there were actually 87 million Facebook users who had their data taken without consent.
The implications of these types of leaks is enormous as every user who downloaded an app is at risk for having their information taken. Any individual can find this online and use it for anything. While passwords and emails aren’t strictly private information if they’re leaked onto the internet- phone numbers and home addresses are. It’s difficult to change your phone number or home address on your own without major bureaucratic complications- making them valuable information if stolen.