Over 500 million Facebook users have their personal data leaked for free online
533 million Facebook users had their records leaked for free
32.3 million Americans had their data stolen while 11.52 million in the U.K. had the same thing happen to them. These data leaks negatively impact Facebook’s main business which is the gathering of user information that is then sold to advertisers; the advertisers can then deliver ads pinpointed and targeted to specific consumers who would benefit from the purchase of a particular product. Since the data made available by the breach is available online for free, why would an advertiser pay Facebook for the same exact information that they can obtain online for free?
Business Insider says that even those with “rudimentary” data skills can find the data on a hacking forum. The publication also compared known Facebook users’ phone numbers with the IDs listed. Other records were confirmed by testing email addresses found in Facebook’s password reset feature. The latter can be used to partially reveal a user’s phone number.
