There’s been another Facebook data breach involving phone numbers – 419M+ users affected

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A huge database of phone numbers and other data tied to Facebook accounts has been found online, on an unprotected server. If you added your phone number to your Facebook account, it’s likely this database has your details.

It’s still unknown who created the database, and why.

A massive database of phone numbers scraped from Facebook was just found online

Sanyam Jain, a security researcher and member of the GDI Foundation, found the exposed database. He contacted TechCrunch, who tried to find the owner. When those efforts failed, they contacted the webhost of the server, who then pulled it offline.

• Over 419 million records were in the database: Including 133 million on US-based users, 18 million UK users, and another 50 million users in Vietnam
• The data was scraped by a third party. Every record had a user’s unique Facebook ID and the phone number on the account. Some also had names, genders, and location by country
• Facebook has restricted developers access to phone numbers for ages now, and made it more difficult to search for friends’ numbers
• The data looks like it was added to the online database at the end of last month (although that doesn’t mean that’s when Facebook was scraped for it)

While this latest privacy snafu wasn’t directly Facebook’s fault, it does underscore the need to keep your details safe when online. Be careful what you upload to social media.

What do you think? Surprised by the news or does this just seem like another day at this point? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.