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533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

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11–20 of 524 posts

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#11

These events are not a matter of if but when. And since the overwhelming majority of the people in my social circles has zero understanding of the real nature of the relationship between them - FB users and FB I just hope this will become increasingly frequent and painful experience for them. As in: I really hope this will get FB users in trouble as a result of identity theft etc. This may sound extremely cynical but…

> people in my social circles ... I just hope this will become increasingly frequent and painful experience for them.

Very strange to wish harm upon your friends with the hope that that will convince them to join your side in a political fight! I would suggest instead that you only wish that if it becomes a painful experience, they would realize why and renegotiate their relationship with FB. Typically wishing pain on your friends is not a good stance.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#12

These events are not a matter of if but when. And since the overwhelming majority of the people in my social circles has zero understanding of the real nature of the relationship between them - FB users and FB I just hope this will become increasingly frequent and painful experience for them. As in: I really hope this will get FB users in trouble as a result of identity theft etc. This may sound extremely cynical but…

I think it would take more than this to be leaked, particularly if users had their 'private' messages on services leaked, then they would start to realize it.

I think most normal people acknowledge that so many companies know their phone number and name that they may be past caring.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#13
post #2

This does not look like scraping. A prima fascie database leak, and an invalidation of Facebook's claims of them not using your phone number past the validation, as well as them claiming using encryption at rest.

The phone number point may still be true though, they have to store the phone number somewhere.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#14

I’ve been getting a lot of automated/unsolicited calls recently. Begs the question if this might be the source of my woes. Is there a trustworthy phone number version of https://haveibeenpwned.com ?

Same here, i started recieving both calls and SMS which the last i find more annoying. I do use Android and these ones haven't been able to be detected as spam

I’m on iOS and don’t think there’s a way of blocking unsolicited calls until after the fact... I hope to be proven wrong though!

The odd thing is, the calls often come through having a caller ID very similar to my own number.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#15
post #2

This does not look like scraping. A prima fascie database leak, and an invalidation of Facebook's claims of them not using your phone number past the validation, as well as them claiming using encryption at rest.

Maybe it's from whatsapp

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#16
Would like to know if non Facebook users are included because Facebook has non Facebook user's phone numbers due to the fact that Whatsapp uploads the entire phonebook to Whatsapp. That means Facebook is likely to know your phone number although you don't use Facebook or Whatsapp.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, i started recieving both calls and SMS which the last i find more annoying. I do use Android and these ones haven't been able to be detected as spam

I’m on iOS and don’t think there’s a way of blocking unsolicited calls until after the fact... I hope to be proven wrong though! The odd thing is, the calls often come through having a caller ID very similar to my own number.

Those are usually generated, they call numbers in area code/exchange randomly, assuming you will pick up something that seems familiar. Jokes on them, I moved to another state, easy for me to tell.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#18
We should start thinking of these breaches in terms of their accumulated impact. It's not the 1990s anymore, where data is difficult to store and networking too slow to move it.

We should assume the leaked data doesn't go away; that instead people out there are consolidating Equifax data with Vastaamo data, adding data from Exchange hacks and the Accellion hack, to cross-reference with data from Facebook... it's like water flooding a levee now, instead of evaporating.

Not the first time I've harped here about this (ie: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26604753, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24586258), but I hope we start planning for that kind of future.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook already breaches the GDPR in many ways and has yet to see significant consequences, so this is unlikely. (before you post a link to enforcementtracker.com please first compare the fine amounts with Facebook's revenue)

Great, so we get the worst of both worlds: outrageously obnoxious opt-out games (which, if skipped, implies free rein) and non-compliance as a cost of doing business. Wonderful.

The obnoxious opt-outs are actually in breach of the GDPR as well, but are allowed to proliferate due to the lack of enforcement.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#20

I’ve been getting a lot of automated/unsolicited calls recently. Begs the question if this might be the source of my woes. Is there a trustworthy phone number version of https://haveibeenpwned.com ?

I've been getting a lot more recently as well and I figured it was due to the phone companies promising to get rid of caller id spoofing this year so scammers are working overtime until they can't anymore.
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