In another case of privacy lapse, Facebook IDs and phone numbers of over 419 million users were reportedly stored in an online server without protection, reported TechCrunch. About 133 million affected users were from US, 18 million from UK, and over 50 million from Vietnam. The Facebook unique ID which was available online could be used to get the name of the users. Security researcher Sanyam Jain had found the online database and tipped off TechCrunch who then contacted the web host. Following this, the data was pulled down. According to the researcher, phone numbers associated with several celebrities were also available in the database. "This dataset is old and appears to have information obtained before we made changes last year to remove people’s ability to find others using their phone numbers. The dataset has been taken down and we see no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised," a Facebook spokesperson told MediaNama. Facebook's lack of data protection The social media company had been facing global criticisms due to the lack of proper protection of its users' data. The issue was highlighted after Cambridge Analytica scandal last year. In April 2018, Facebook had revealed data belonging to over 562,455 Indian Facebook users may have been improperly accessed by British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The breach had globally affected around 87 million users. In August 2018, The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had begun a preliminary inquiry against Cambridge Analytica, which has been suspected of harvesting and breaching the data of millions of Indians without their consent. The agent probed…
