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The Guardian

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ phone numbers were exposed in an open online database, the company confirmed, in the latest example of Facebook’s past privacy lapses coming back to haunt its users.
More than 419 million Facebook IDs and phone numbers were stored in an online server that was not password protected, the technology website TechCrunch reported.
The data set included about 133 million records for users in the US, 18 million records for users in the UK and 50 million records for users in Vietnam.
The database was taken offline after TechCrunch contacted the web host.
Facebook confirmed the report and said it was investigating when and by whom the database was compiled.
A spokeswoman for the company also claimed that the actual number of users whose information was exposed was around 210 million, because the 419 million records contained duplicates.
The records were likely amassed using a tool that Facebook disabled in April 2018 in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica controversy.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promises a more privacy-friendly company, sort of
The revelations showed how Facebook’s lax approach to privacy had allowed a political consultancy to obtain personal information from tens of millions of profiles.
Until then, Facebook allowed anyone to search for users by their phone number, a seemingly benign tool for finding an individual with a common name that was also readily hijacked by data scrapers.
“Malicious actors have also abused these features to scrape public profile information by submitting phone numbers or email addresses they already have through search,” chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer wrote at the time.




“Given the scale and sophistication of the activity we’ve seen, we believe most people on Facebook could have had their public profile scraped in this way.”
Facebook emphasised that the exposed data was “old” and would have been scraped prior to the April 2018 policy change.
“This data set is old and appears to have information obtained before we made changes last year to remove people’s ability to find others using their phone numbers,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Facebook outlines steps towards building a privacy-focused platform, in nod to China’s WeChat
“The data set has been taken down and we have seen no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised.”
The spokeswoman did not respond to questions about whether Facebook would tell users whose information was exposed or offer any mitigation to those affected, saying only that the company was still investigating.
Facebook’s characterisation of the data as “old” notwithstanding, phone numbers are an increasingly important key to people’s identities – and a potential vulnerability.
While not as sensitive as a social security number, they are important identifiers that can be used to easily obtain significant amounts of personal information about an individual and their family from online data brokers, as The New York Times reported in August.
Skilled attackers can often leverage a mobile phone number and information gained through data brokers or social media sites (such as home address, previous addresses, family members, etc) to persuade mobile phone carriers to transfer a target’s phone number to a different phone.
Facebook at 15: Zuckerberg, privacy, fake news and China
The latest high-profile victim of this type of attack, which is known as Sim swapping, was Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey, whose Twitter account was hijacked on Friday by a hacking group that appears to have gained control of his mobile phone number.
On Wednesday, Twitter announced that it was temporarily disabling the ability for users to send tweets through SMS, or text messages, due to “vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers”.

For more insights into China tech, join our Facebook group, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.



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Facebook

419 million exposed: is your phone number affected by Facebook’s latest security bungle?

The information was stored in an online server that was not password protected, according to a report from TechCrunch. Photo: AP

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promises a more privacy-friendly company, sort of

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, shown in a file photo, said on Wednesday that the company is shifting its focus to become “a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform”. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 1, 2018 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the annual F8 summit at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. - Facebook is shifting its focus to become "a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on March 6, 2019 in outlining a broad vision for transforming the online giant. Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page the social network will be less of "the digital equivalent of a town square" because "people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room." (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 21, 2018 A lit sign is seen at the entrance to Facebook's corporate headquarters location in Menlo Park, California. - Facebook is shifting its focus to become "a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on March 6, 2019 in outlining a broad vision for transforming the online giant. Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page the social network will be less of "the digital equivalent of a town square" because "people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room." (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

FILE - This Jan. 17, 2017, file photo shows a Facebook logo displayed in a start-up companies gathering at Paris' Station F in Paris. The French government is unveiling plans to slap a 3 percent tax on the French revenues of internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg puts tape over his laptop camera 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrating Instagram's 5 million users. Photo: Facebook

Photo: Facebook

Facebook outlines steps towards building a privacy-focused platform, in nod to China’s WeChat

In this file photo taken on January 15, 2019, the logo of social network Facebook is displayed on a smartphone in Nantes, western France. Photo: AFP

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The information was stored in an online server that was not password protected, according to a report from TechCrunch



Hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ phone numbers were exposed in an open online database.


Social media

Cybersecurity