Hacker Allegedly Selling Personal Info of Billions of Facebook Users on Forum

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By Alyssa Wilson Published: October 4, 2021

Hacker Allegedly Selling Personal Info of Billions of Facebook Users on Forum

FILE - This March 29, 2018 file photo, shows the logo for social media giant Facebook at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York's Times Square. With just two months left until the U.S. presidential election, Facebook says it is taking additional steps to encourage voting, minimize misinformation and reduce the likelihood of post-election “civil unrest.” The company said Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020, it will restrict new political ads in the week before the election and remove posts that convey misinformation about COVID-19 and voting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In Summary

Billions of Facebook users are allegedly having their personal data being sold online to hackers and advertisers.

The personal information of billions of Facebook users is allegedly being sold on a popular forum for hackers.

According to Privacy Affairs, this potentially gives cybercriminals and advertisers the ability to target users from all over the world.

In September, a user on the hacker forum posted alleging they had the personal data of more than 1.5 billion Facebook users, with the information available for sale. Potential buyers can purchase all of the data together or in smaller quantities for a lower price.

The information for sale includes the names, email addresses, location, gender, phone number and user ID of billions of the platform’s users. The samples presented on the forum appear to be authentic, Privacy Affairs reported.

This new incident is unrelated to a data breach from April where the personal information and phone numbers from 533 million users were leaked online. It also comes after a former employee revealed details about Facebook’s promotion of hate speech and misinformation for profit, followed by a widespread outage on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.