Facebook has no plans to notify users about data leak
What's the story
The personal information of more than 530 million Facebook users was leaked and the data has been posted on a hacking forum for free. Now, startling as it sounds, a Facebook spokesperson has informed Reuters that the company does not plan to notify those 530 million users that their data was leaked from the social media platform. Here are more details.
Clueless
Facebook does not know which users should be notified
According to the spokeperson, Facebook was not confident that it had full visibility on which users would need to be notified. It suggests that the company does not have complete information about whose data was leaked. The leaked data is available online and users can't do anything about it. This is why Facebook decided not to notify the users about it, the official adds.
Loophole
The social media platform claims that its systems weren't hacked
Meanwhile, according to the company, the leaked data was not obtained by hacking its system. It says the hackers used Facebook's contact import tool to obtain the data. This tool allows users to import contacts to the social media platform to find friends. Facebook says that it fixed the loophole as soon as it discovered that its tool for importing contacts was being misused.
Self help
Check if your data was leaked with these tools
Although Facebook has decided against notifying users whose data has been leaked, you can check if you were a part of the data breach with the help of Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) and The News Each Day. Once you enter your email ID or phone number, these platforms will show instances in which your data was leaked including the recent Facebook breach.
Mixed signals
Facebook data breach reveals Mark Zuckerberg is on Signal
Funnily enough, the phone number of Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was also leaked in the data breach. A security researcher named Dave Walker used Zuckerberg's leaked number to find out that he is on the Signal app. Ironically, Signal is a competitor to Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Signal became popular when WhatsApp announced that it would start collecting user data.