Facebook Doesn’t Want To Inform Users About Data Leak

Last weekend it became known that Facebook was and is affected by a massive data leak. Information from around 533 million users was tapped by strangers. The social network does not want to inform those affected by itself.

The data leak is extremely embarrassing for Facebook and so Mark Zuckerberg’s company is trying by all means to downplay the matter. This includes, for example, an “Oh, everything is half as bad” blog post published yesterday, in which it is explicitly emphasized that this was not a hack, but rather that the user data was “scraped”.

In addition, Facebook made it clear that no passwords or financial data had come into the hands of the attackers, or better said, collectors. Of course, the escaped data is still more than sensitive. Because users have to fear that their names, IDs, locations, biographical information, telephone numbers and sometimes also e-mail addresses have got into the hands of strangers.

Facebook sees no need for action

If Facebook users want to know whether they are also affected, they have to take action themselves. Because Facebook itself does not want to hang the data leak on the big bell if possible. Therefore, one does not plan to inform those affected directly about it.

As reported by Reuters news, a company spokesman said that Facebook does not fully know which users actually need to be informed. The decision not to notify users also took into account that users cannot fix the problem on their own and that the data is publicly available anyway.

This silence from Facebook is undoubtedly disappointing and, given the sensitivity of the data, almost negligent. At least you can check for yourself whether you are affected: The renowned website Have I Been Pwned allows you (safely) to search for your own e-mail and/or mobile number in order to find out whether you are one of the users whose data is online have arrived.