Comparitech specialists discovered an unprotected database on the Internet containing about 235 million user profiles of Instagram, TikTok and YouTube services. To date, the incident is one of the largest data breaches.
The data set was discovered by researcher Bob Dyachenko on August 1 this year. It contained information extracted from public profiles, including logins, full usernames, contact information, images, statistics on the number of subscribers, data on age, gender, etc.
Over 192 million posts were linked to Instagram users, 42 million were TikTok users, and nearly 4 million were YouTube users. Although all information is publicly available, the rules of all three services prohibit extracting data from profiles.
Initially, the researchers linked the found database with the now defunct company Deep Social, which was banned by Facebook and Instagram in 2018 for extracting data from user profiles, which is prohibited by social media politicians. The companies even threatened Deep Social with legal action if it did not stop the practice.
In response to a request, representatives of Deep Social redirected Dyachenko to Social Data, a company specializing in selling information about popular bloggers to marketing firms. However, Social Data denied the connection with Deep Social and stated that they did not consider the formation of a database to be illegal.
“All data is available to anyone with Internet access [...] Even without the existence of a database, anyone can resort to phishing in the same way or contact anyone who specifies a phone number or email address in their social media profile [...] Users who are not those wishing to provide information close their accounts, ”the company stressed.
