When is a hack not a hack? With all the brouhaha over privacy lately, no doubt Facebook users would be disturbed to know that their details might have surfaced on an internet file sharing site.
According to British site Thinq, the directory was compiled by hacker Ron Bowes of Skull Security using a web crawler program. The 2.8GB torrent reportedly contains 171 million entries, relating to 100 million individual users. Facebook claims a total user base of 500 million.
The file contains user account names and a URL for each user’s profile page, which could contain details such as addresses, dates of birth or phone numbers.
The problem is that Bowes didn’t have to use his hacking skills to break into the Facebook site to compile his directory – he simply harvested publicly available data from Facebook’s open access directory. The affected users all have one thing in common – they hadn’t changed their privacy settings to make their pages unavailable to search engines. However, visiting an user’s profile from this directory would also allow you to click through to their friends’ profiles, even if the friends had not made their profiles searchable.
Privacy has been a big issue for Facebook in the past, though the debate has quietened down since the last big tranche of privacy setting changes in May. The latest news is sure to raise the question about whether the default settings should be more protective of user data.
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I have railed from the beginning about people having personally identifiable information available on their public walls, especially dates of birth, which is often the first and most important piece of information a data thief can pull to steal your identity.
Don't think identity theft could be a problem? Try getting your life and credit rating BACK after identity theft.
Please, people, I beg of you! Change the security settings for your date of birth to "only me"!
Comment by Susie Sharp — July 28, 2010 @ 11:07 am
In other news, you can now type anyone's name into Google and get their Facebook URL *gasp*.
Comment by Ryan Merket — July 28, 2010 @ 11:10 am
"However, visiting an user’s profile from this directory would also allow you to click through to their friends’ profiles, even if the friends had not made their profiles searchable."
Curious, so if I clicked a friend from a public profile I can see the friends stuff? I don't think so IF the friend being clicked on has privacy settings set properly. I'm not sure I understand the claim in that sentence.
Comment by Eric Rosario — July 28, 2010 @ 11:20 am
If you want an alternative to FB for sharing your most private information online, give ThreadThat.com a try. Nothing you share will ever show up in search engine results. This site is new and it's free. It can't help you find your "friends", but it will help you keep the ones you have by respecting their privacy as well.
Comment by MrPrivacy — July 28, 2010 @ 11:38 am
Most people have a lot to learn. You do not talk to a stranger in the street or carry a tag on you saying; “hey Iam… And my birth date is…” Why they do in FB?
Comment by Fernando — July 28, 2010 @ 12:15 pm
@Eric Clearly, any information on the friend's profile page would still be subject to the usual privacy settings. However, since the friend's profile is not normally findable through a search engine, this directory makes it much easier to find.
Comment by Caitlin Fitzsimmons — July 28, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
There is a new social networking experience coming this fall. It's called somethingcoolhappened.com. You can go there now to view a preview video and to preregister. With this site you can interact with friends, create your own unique avatars, upload videos, pictures or stories of something cool that happened to you or someone else! You also get full anonymity. It is going to be awesome! Check it out.
Think of this site as more like a combination of YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and then something totally brand new. With this site you will get your anonymity back, no more personal information floating around being sold off and you will get to be creative, compete with other people if you wish and just have fun in a great positive atmosphere.
Comment by coolhappened — July 29, 2010 @ 4:11 am
>The 2.8GB torrent reportedly contains 171 million entries,
>relating to 100 million individual users. Facebook claims a
>total user base of 500 million.
Interesting. Am I wrong or can we get the ratio of real accounts on FB ? It would lead to nearly 300m individual users.
Comment by francois — July 29, 2010 @ 5:49 am
want to join facebook with security ….
Comment by Ayie Back Junior Jr — July 29, 2010 @ 12:58 pm
I signed up for Facebook and after I logged in for two days, a sign now comes up asking for my mobile phone number and I refuse to give it out so I can no longer log in to my Facebook account and if I could, I would try to delete it because I think it's a dangerous place, especially after I have given by birthdate. I think I have been hacked because I read where someone complied with the phone number and couldn't get it anyway. If anyone knows anyway around this or how I can contact Facebook, I'd sure like to know.
Comment by Naomi Ambach — September 12, 2010 @ 7:40 pm
Maybe everyone should stop moaning about this?
Its your fault if you get your details taken it was you who made your profile public!
So either change your privacy settings or just leave Facebook… Just stop moaning
Comment by Ricky — October 18, 2010 @ 12:20 pm
a recent hack (this past weekend) has made it so if u put "only me" anyone can still see it, all of ur information is free to the world.
Comment by Chris — October 19, 2010 @ 1:20 pm
Facebook is a great tool, but if you don't know how to use it, it might turn around against you.
Comment by Cityville — December 29, 2010 @ 2:14 am
the security of our information it' sthe first thing very necessary!
Comment by dotgolf — October 19, 2011 @ 4:34 am