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

businessinsider.com

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

#301

Post by dheera »

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #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.

This is why I don't use my real phone number with apps and HATE apps using phone numbers as a proxy for a user id.

Get a virtual phone number if any service requires a phone number from you. Don't submit to this nonsense.

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

#302

Post by varispeed »

progval wrote: post #126
amluto wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I mean is: Facebook should remove that API entirely. Apps do not need a way to look up a phone number in Facebook’s database. The “find my friends using this app” feature does not require this capability.

What you are proposing is that third-party apps should ask Facebook's app to find the friends, right? But Facebook's app needs to access Facebook's database somehow; and anyone can impersonate Facebook's app and query that database too.

I think it should be illegal for apps to help find friends. If you genuinely meet someone offline, then they could generate you a token that then you could enter on the site to "connect".

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

#304

Post by RachelF »

poqegjrioe wrote: post #113
kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #42

Don’t worry, Facebook will soon put out a press release including the phrase “we need to do better.”

I work in the security field and let me tell you something I realized: nobody cares about security. If someone cares about security, it's because they've had many many incidents in the past. We humans are not a species that is good at preventing, we are good at reacting. the security handbook[^1] has a chapter on that actually, and they basically say that role playing is the only way of not getting burned. Humans are…

The problem is that companies don't care about securing their data, because the data is not theirs, it is about their users.

Mark Zuckerberg probably spends more on personal and family security and privacy than Facebook spends on their users' security.

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

#305

Post by DSingularity »

rpastuszak wrote: post #183
DSingularity wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason we are here is because the one subset of the population which can do something about it has sold out. Is it the congressmen? No, it is us. Also the professors that taught us and the departments that accredited us. Either we did nothing to fight back or we are ourselves complicit and helped them build this world we live in.

I see what you mean but I think it's a bit more complicated than that. It's hard to make the right choice when most of the information you receive comes from the entities in whose interest is you not making the right choice (e.g. Google, FB). An average HN reader is in a very comfortable situation compared to the remaining 99.9% of the population, who might not have time to think about this. Unless, and I might've mi…

Yeah but that doesn’t vindicate them. If professors boycotted these institutions it would have made a difference. Still might.

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

#306

Post by tomComb »

anonymousiam wrote: post #70

The root of the problem is not the privacy policy or the system security. The root of the problem is the collection itself. All large businesses, health care providers, and governments maintain databases. Every one of them will eventually be leaked. All it takes is a corruptible trusted insider.

Google has a huge number of activist (and surely some corruptible) employees, and yet the incidents of users data getting out are very close to zero.

I think this demonstrates that user data can be managed safely and effectively.

Usually the incidents reports on user data leaks show that the company seemed to barely be trying - We need laws that force them (even small companies) to put serious effort into it.

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

#307

Post by lostlogin »

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #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.

I don’t use Facebook or their other apps (eg WhatsApp). Facebook has my email address as I used to get regular invites to sign up. Facebook also knows what I look like from friends tagging me in pictures, and seems knows my date of birth as people tell me that they were notified by Facebook. So even if you have avoided all their stuff, you aren’t immune.

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

#308

Post by lostlogin »

Guest42 wrote: post #300
drewmol wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory mention: mbasic.facebook.com it's like a clean needle exchange for Facebook.

That's nice. I deleted my fb but sometimes groups will require it for events and discussion boards.

There was a dark phase when it looked as if the only way to sign up for various services was going to be Facebook. If memory serves, there was a time when Spotify sign up required Facebook.

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

#309

Post by dunham »

banana_giraffe wrote: post #272

Looking at the leak others have pointed to, there are a surprising number of people working in a particular imaginary company: sqlite> select company, count(*) as c from usa where length(company) > 0 group by company order by c desc limit 10; company c ---------------------------------------- ---------- Self-Employed 459119 Facebook 181013 Retired 71210 The Krusty Krab 61550 Hollister Co. 42304 U.S. Army 39682 Stay-a…

What's the count of people who elected not to enter their company?

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

#310

Post by banana_giraffe »

dunham wrote: post #309
banana_giraffe wrote: post #272

Looking at the leak others have pointed to, there are a surprising number of people working in a particular imaginary company: sqlite> select company, count(*) as c from usa where length(company) > 0 group by company order by c desc limit 10; company c ---------------------------------------- ---------- Self-Employed 459119 Facebook 181013 Retired 71210 The Krusty Krab 61550 Hollister Co. 42304 U.S. Army 39682 Stay-a…

What's the count of people who elected not to enter their company?

    sqlite> select count(*) from usa where length(company) = 0;
    22209703
    sqlite> select count(*) from usa;
    32315270
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