A computer security researcher on Wednesday released the profile data of more than 100 million Facebook users on a list he compiled by searching Facebook’s public directory.
The Facebook directory lists users who share at least some of their profile information with the public. But the significance of the list compiled by researcher Ron Bowes of Skull Security is that it makes it easier for anyone to compile and sort the emails, locations and other publicly available data of anyone on the list.
Bowes made the 2.8-gigabyte list available to the public over the BitTorrent network. In a blog posting Bowes said he published the list to highlight what he called a “scary privacy issue” in that Facecbook’s complicated privacy settings often leave users unaware of what personal information they are sharing.
Facebook, which boasts more than 500 million users, has been beset by security and privacy concerns in recent months, but brushed off Bowes’ list as a release of information that was already available to the public.
“In this case, information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher,” Facebook said in a statement.
“This information already exists in Google, Bing, other search engines, as well as on Facebook. No private data is available or has been compromised.”
Source http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article540077.ece
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