Facebook Says Hackers Accessed Users’ Personal Data

Facebook today provided an update on last month’s hack. The hackers used accounts under their control to access the tokens of some 400,000 users. Using automated techniques, the hackers then boosted that number into the tens of millions. Facebook now says that 30 million accounts were definitely impacted, which is less than the 50 million it had originally estimated. Of those 30 million accounts, 15 million had their name and contact details (phone number, email address) scraped. For 14 million, the hackers stole their name, contact data, as well as username, gender, location, relationship, religion, hometown, birthday, device types, education, work, and locations/posts in which they were tagged. For 1 million people, the hackers didn’t access any information. Facebook says users can check to see if their information was stolen via its online Help Center. The social network also plans to proactively email people to let them know what data was taken and how they might protect themselves. Facebook says the hackers did not compromise Instagram, Messenger, Messenger Kids, Oculus, Pages, payments, WhatsApp, or Workplace. The investigation is ongoing and Facebook is cooperating with law enforcement.

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