Facebook Initially Ignored Researcher Who Reported Another Stupefying User Data Leak
It does not seem Facebook will be able to catch a break this week after an accidental email revealed the company’s dismissive view of data leakage. The Silicon Valley social media company is facing a possible new leak after a researcher found he could link up to 5 million Facebook accounts to private email addresses daily.
On Tuesday, a video made the rounds that showed a researcher, who remains anonymous, demonstrating a tool called “Facebook Email search v1.0.” This person explained to Ars Technica that as many as 5 million emails could be linked to Facebook accounts in a day, even if said emails were private on an account. Interestingly, the only reason we know of this leak is because Facebook decided to dismiss the issue, with the researcher stating Facebook did not believe it was important enough.
Whatever you think of Facebook, companies who handle any customer data need to be held to higher standards than at present as these situations cannot keep happening. Perhaps it will take legislation or consumers voting with their wallets and clicks, but change is necessary to keep some semblance of privacy.
(Application Image Courtesy Of Ars Technica And Anonymous Researcher)
