Bogomil Shopov, a Bulgarian blogger and digital rights activist, bought 1.1 million Facebook names, user IDs and emails for the ridiculously low price of 5 dollars. Yes, for a price of a Subway footlong, Shopov was able to get his hands on your personal data from Facebook. What a deal!
Luckily, Shopov isn’t out to spam people or anything. Instead, he wants to use this as an example of how terribly lax Facebook can be with its security. How did those names and email addresses become available in the first place? Facebook apps. Forbes says:
According to the seller of the information, a Gigbucks user with the handle “mertem,” the data was collected from Facebook applications.”The information in this list has been collected through our Facebook apps and consists only of active Facebook users, mostly from the US, Canada, UK and Europe,” reads the Gigbucks post. “Whether you are offering a Facebook, Twitter, social media related or otherwise a general product or service, this list has a great potential for you.”
The personal data of Facebook users isn’t just from people who keep their profile public, Shopov said he found email addresses that were private and hidden too. Facebook is currently looking into the breach of user data but they haven’t yet come to a resolution. We are at their mercy. [Forbes]