Facebook Leaving Consumers Exposed

Earlier this year, an unsecured online database had linked people's names to their phone numbers from the Facebook database.

A UK cybersecurity researcher Elliott Murray believed that the database contained the same data Facebook had claimed they had gotten rid of. The site was very quickly removed.

Upon reading this, of course, my reaction was fear. In this day and age, where technology literally rules our every move, privacy is a huge issue of concern.

A couple months ago, someone used my pictures and pretended to be me with some people that I used to work with. At the time my Instagram was public, so I can't imagine if someone could just grab my phone number like that at the time and the random texts I would be receiving because they thought they were once talking to me.

Facebook or any other social media app or website shouldn't have an unprotected database because it puts consumers at risk and leaves them exposed to numerous cybercrimes essentially. It's really scary to think that data that should be password-protected can be accessed by anyone that has a browser and the right IP address. Due to this, internet users are at extreme risk for scam phone calls that could potentially lead to Identity Theft. Having access to this kind of information helps scammers prove their "legitimacy" to you.

If your data gets exposed like this, you have to treat the situation the same way as if your information had been stolen/a data breached had occurred.  There is an Identity Theft Resource Center that offers a service called Breach Clarity that helps guide you threw how to handle your situation.

There are no previous legal implications that could be followed in a situation like this. However, with time and the more issues like this occur, I'm sure it will face legal ramifications at some point.