Instagram influencers' and celebrities’ personal details made freely available on the internet
It is still not clear how phone numbers and email addresses made their way online
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The personal details of millions of celebrities and influencers have been made freely available on the internet.
A vast array of private data, apparently focused on Instagram users, was found on the internet and left unsecured so that anyone who accessed it could read what was inside.
The record included the personal information of 49 million people before it was shut down, according to Techcrunch, which first reported the breach. It contained publicly available information scraped from their Instagram accounts – such as their profiile picture and location – but also personal and private data, such as their email address and phone number.
It also included details of the reach and engagement of users' posts, which was used to generate a financial value for account holders to decide how much they could be paid for advertising.
It included the information of several high profile people and using the contact information inside the document did allow people to speak with them, Techcrunch reported.
The trove of data appears to have been generated by a social media marketing firm, which allows people to be paid to be post sponsored content and ads onto their Instagram accounts.
The database has now been taken offline after its existence was discovered by a security researcher.
It is still not clear how the marketing firm – which is not part of Instagram – was able to generate such a vast amount of data. Instagram has admitted in the past that it has mistakenly allowed people to scrape private information from people's accounts, though it is not clear whether the new information came from such a hack.
Facebook said that it was trying to find the source of the information and how it was made public. The Indian marketing firm accused of making it available is yet to comment.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments