DIGITAL LIFE

Phone numbers of 419 million Facebook users leak on the internet

Phone numbers of 419 million Facebook users were leaked online - the discovery was made by security researcher Sanyam Jain, who found the data on a password-free server, allowing anyone to access the data.
According to TechCrunch, the data was from users in the US, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Jain says he found several celebrity-related numbers but couldn't find the owner of the leaked database.
Each record had each account's ID number and phone number - some had the username, gender, and location. In April 2018, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook barred the use of phone numbers on the platform. Until then, it was possible to search for a user on the social network using their telephone number. Prior to that, the company had also restricted independent developers' access to phone numbers.
Facebook spokesman told TechCrunch that data was removed before the company cut access to phones. "The information has been removed and we found no evidence that Facebook accounts were breached.

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