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We all know that Facebook stalks us, collects our data, and even tracks what kind of porn we watch.
All of that is already a major invasion of our privacy, and it’s made all the more invasive when this data gets leaked on hacking forums.
According to Insider, the exposed data includes personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, with a majority from the US, the UK, and India.
The data is said to include phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and — in some cases — email addresses.
Hackers can use this info in a myriad creative and insidious ways, according to security researchers. This includes potential identity fraud, or scams, or at the very least spam.
Thankfully, there’s a way to check.
Troy Hunt, a little hero in this whole spiel with social media security, created a website called Have I Been Pwned, which allows you to check exactly if and where your email address or phone number has been leaked.
You simply type in your email address or phone number in the search bar on the site and it tells you how many breaches you were ‘Pwned’ in, if you were at all, where they occurred, and how to better secure your data.
I checked and it looks like I have been Pwned eight times (!!!), including this most recent Facebook data breach.
I am not too worried, though, because most of the data that they would have got their hands on, besides my precious email address, is outdated or irrelevant.
Regardless, I need to make better, more secure decisions.
One really good way is to get a password manager that stores all your unique passwords so you only have to remember one (for the password manager website).
Using two-factor authentication is another great way to make your data more secure.
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