Facebook Data leak, 2021

The personal data of more than 533 million Facebook users has been leaked online recently. The exposed data included personal information of the Facebook users from more than 106 countries. This also included records of 32 million users in the US, 11 million in UK and 6 million in India.

What is Facebook Data Leak, 2021?

The Facebook data leaked included personal details such as names and phone numbers associated with the user accounts. They are now available in several online forums for free!

The current data leak is being considered as the biggest data breach as the phone number of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was found in the leaked data. Also, his birth date and marriage details have been hacked.

The data breach comes during the time when Facebook owned WhatsApp is shifting to a safer alternative such as Signal. These new terms of WhatsApp are creating controversies.

WhatsApp new terms

The new terms of WhatsApp are creating controversies as under the new terms Facebook can access user chats with business accounts.

What caused the data breach?

The data leak is related to 2019 vulnerability that exposed the phone number linked to every Facebook account. Facebook claimed that it had been fixed long back. However, the recent data breach says that still flaws exist in the system that are aiding the hackers.

How can the data be misused?

The breached data has been put up in several forums. These details can be exploited by the advertisers. Also, anyone with rudimentary skills can use these data to commit a cyber crime. Earlier in March 2018, Facebook data were accessed by the UK-based Cambridge Analytica. The data gathered was used to help the political candidates all over the world to win elections. This included data of more than 5.62 lakh Indians.

India and Facebook

• According to GoI, India has more than 52 crore WhatsApp users, 21 crores of Instagram users and 41 crores of Facebook users.
• Several countries in the west have data protection regulations. However, India is yet to catch up. The Sections 43A and 72A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for compensation in case of data misuse.
• The Personal Data Protection Bill is yet to be passed in Lok Sabha. The bill has provisions relating to data breach.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2021