Become a Member ![\\"snopes](\\"/design/images/logo-main.png\\"/) Search My Profile Logout Submit a Rumor Latest Trending News & Politics Entertainment Fact Checks Quiz Sections Latest Trending Fact Checks News Collections More Contact Us Submit a Rumor Archives Quiz FactBot Newsletters About Us Categories News & Politics Entertainment Science & Technology Lifestyle Free accounts support our journalism Become a Member Login My Profile Logout ![\\"republican_symbol\\"](\\"/design/images/republican_symbol.png\\"/) Snopes fact-checked the vice presidential debate live! Read more here ![\\"democrat_symbol\\"](\\"/design/images/democrat_symbol.png\\"/) Fact Check # Was the Personal Info of a Half-Billion Facebook Users Leaked Online? ## Facebook said the data breach happened in 2019. ### Bethania Palma ### Published April 7, 2021 ![\\"KIRCHHEIM](\\" Image courtesy of DeFodi Images / Getty Images Claim: More than half a billion Facebook users had some personal information leaked onto a hacker forum in April 2021. Rating: True About this rating On April 3, 2021, Business Insider reported that the personal information of more than half a billion Facebook users was dumped onto a hacking forum: > The exposed data includes the personal information of over 533 million > Facebook users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records on > users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in > India. It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, > birthdates, bios, and, in some cases, email addresses. Advertisement: Business Insider reported that the exposed data was posted in a \"low-level hacking forum\" on April 3. The data breach was indirectly confirmed by Facebook, which said in an April 6 blog post that the problem initially occurred in 2019 and has since been fixed: > We believe the data in question was scraped from people’s Facebook profiles > by malicious actors using our contact importer prior to September 2019. This > feature was designed to help people easily find their friends to connect > with on our services using their contact lists. > > When we became aware of how malicious actors were using this feature in > 2019, we made changes to the contact importer. In this case, we updated it > to prevent malicious actors from using software to imitate our app and > upload a large set of phone numbers to see which ones matched Facebook > users. Through the previous functionality, they were able to query a set of > user profiles and obtain a limited set of information about those users > included in their public profiles. The information did not include financial > information, health information or passwords. We reached out to Facebook and asked whether the company would notify users affected by the breach, but didn\'t get a response in time for publication. We will update if we hear back. A Facebook spokesperson told Reuters, however, that it doesn\'t have plans to do so. In lieu of that, Facebook users can check the website Have I Been Pwned to see if their email addresses or phones have been part of that or other data breaches. Advertisement: As Wired reported, victims of the breaches included some notable figures, including Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and several high ranking government officials in the U.S. and Europe. ### By Bethania Palma Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who started her career as a daily newspaper reporter and has covered everything from crime to government to national politics. She has written for ... read more Recommendations Advertisement: ![\\"Snopes.com\\"](\\"/design/images/logo-main.png\\") Company About Us FAQs Contact Us Submit a Topic Navigate Home Search Archive Newsletters Random Sections Latest Top Fact Checks News Account Join Login Game FactBot Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter © 1995 - 2024 by Snopes Media Group Inc. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com Terms of Use Privacy Policy DMCA Policy
More than half a billion Facebook users had some personal information leaked onto a hacker forum in April 2021