Faulty Facebook Privacy Settings Expose User Phone Numbers

snoopy · Oct 7, 2012

October 7th, 2012, 05:54 GMT · By Eduard Kovacs
Faulty Facebook Privacy Settings Expose User Phone Numbers, Researcher Says

Security researcher Suriya Prakash claims he identified a serious flaw in the way Facebook protects its customers’ phone numbers.

The expert highlights the fact that in the “Contact Info” section, users can enter their phone numbers, but make sure that no one can see them by choosing the “Only Me” option. However, there is another privacy setting which exposes phone numbers.

In the “How You Connect” section of the privacy settings section there is an option for “Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided.” The problem is that this parameter is set to “Everyone” by default. Even more worrying is the fact that there isn’t an option to fully restrict such “lookups.” The only available variants are “Everyone”, “Friends of Friends” and “Friends.”

The researcher learned that this flaw could be leveraged to collect the usernames and phone numbers of random members. He immediately informed Facebook of this issue, but the social network’s representatives didn’t seem to fully comprehend the risks posed by the privacy flaw. They also pointed out that users are responsible for ensuring that they can't be found based on their phone numbers.
Click to expand...

Story - http:/ ews.softpedia.com ews/Faulty-Facebook-Privacy-Settings-Expose-User-Phone-Numbers-Researcher-Says-297424.shtml

Log in or Sign up

Faulty Facebook Privacy Settings Expose User Phone Numbers

snoopy Registered Members

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Faulty Facebook Privacy Settings Expose User Phone Numbers

snoopy Registered Members

Share This Page

Useful Searches