100 Million Facebook User Profiles Published Online

An Online Security Expert, Ron Bowes has managed to create code that scanned through the 500 million strong Users of face book profiles that are set to display information publicly on their Privacy Settings. The results show that 100 million names were unique out of the 171 Million returned. The List was posted on a popular file sharing site – Pirate Bay
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Facebook, however said no private data had been compromised. Although, they went ahead to say that most of this information was already available online and that the users had made it that viewable in the public Domain.

 

Mr. Bowes has demonstrated that such information could still be accessed even if the users whose names had been published in the list changed their privacy settings, since he and those that have downloaded the file he published on the popular file sharing site – Pirate Bay is still in their possession.

The implications of actions taken by Mr. Bowes triggered concerns from other experts. Simon Davies, a security expert told the BBC that this is result of most users not understanding their privacy settings.

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Bowes, in an interview with the BBC explained his actions in detail.

Facebook is the world’s most popular social Networking site with 500 million users and still counting.