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According to a recent report, records of over 419 million Facebook accounts, including phone numbers associated with these accounts, were found online and accessible to everyone.
The records were found in several databases on a server that was not protected by a password, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.
The information published for each account included user IDs and phone numbers associated with the account. Some of the records also included the sex of the user, indicated the point of sale.
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Before it shut down, the server had included information on about 133 million US accounts, 18 million US accounts and more than 50 million user accounts based in Vietnam, according to TechCrunch.
A spokesman for Facebook, told FOX Business that the information posted on the server was already to be recovered before last year, when the company stopped publishing users' phone numbers in April.
"This dataset is old and seems to have information obtained before we made any changes last year to prevent people from finding other people using their phone numbers" said the spokesman at FOX Business in a statement.
| Teleprinter | security | Latest | Change | % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FB | FACEBOOK INC. | 187.16 | 4.77 | + 2.62% |
"The dataset has been removed and we have not seen any evidence that Facebook accounts have been compromised," added the spokesman.
TechCrunch reportedly found the server after a security researcher, Sanyam Jain, found it and informed the point of sale. He claimed to have found the phone numbers of several celebrities in the database.
However, the server would have been shut down after TechCrunch contacted the web host.
It is not known who released the information or why they did it, although TechCrunch indicated that the problem could be human error rather than piracy.
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Facebook has been the subject of a growing number of checks in recent years regarding privacy breaches.
In July, the Federal Trade Commission imposed a record $ 5 billion fine on the social media giant for violating consumers' right to privacy.
The investigation was launched following the revelation that a third-party company – Cambridge Analytica – was able to access private information belonging to millions of Americans during the 2016 election cycle.
Brittany De Lea of FOX Business contributed to this report.
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