Hackers stole Facebook information from 29 million people, including phone numbers and birth dates
REUTERS/Steve Marcus
- A massive attack on Facebook by unidentified hackers impacted 29 million people.
- The majority of data taken was personal names and phone numbers.
- For some people, much more information was taken - date of birth, location, religion, and a variety of other details.
Facebook announced important new details Friday about the massive hack that affected 29 million users of its social network - and it's much worse than we thought.
A mess of personal information, including details about people's recent locations, phone numbers and search histories, was taken by the as-yet unidentified hackers.
After all, Facebook serves as an online identity for many people.
"For 15 million people, attackers accessed two sets of information - name and contact details (phone number, email, or both, depending on what people had on their profiles)," Facebook said in a blog post Friday.
"For 14 million people, the attackers accessed the same two sets of information, as well as other details people had on their profiles," the post said.
For anyone who's filled out a Facebook profile page, those "other details people had on their profiles" can amount to a lot of personal information: Stuff like your birthdate, where you went to school, who you're in a relationship with - even your religion. It all depends on what you volunteered to Facebook when you filled out your profile page.
- Username
- Gender
- Locale/language
- Relationship status
- Religion
- Hometown
- Self-reported current city
- Birthdate
- Device types used to access Facebook
- Education
- Work
- The last 10 places you checked into or were tagged in
- Website
- People or Pages you follow
- The 15 most recent searches
Wondering whether or not you're affected? So were we! Head to this Facebook page while logged into Facebook, and scroll to the bottom to find out.
