This article was published on June 22, 2009

Serious Facebook Profile Leak Exposed


Serious Facebook Profile Leak Exposed

New Facebook discussion blog FBHive has announced their arrival to the blogosphere with a post describing a serious vulnerability within the worlds largest social network, Facebook.

basic_info-mark_zuckerbergThe site claims to have found a hack which exposes the entire “basic information” section within anyones Facebook profile. This section includes location, gender, relationship status, relatioships, political views, religions views, birthday and hometown. Clearly enough for sly marketers and identity thieves to play with.

TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters contacted the blog to challenge them to exposing his basic profile information:

“I asked them to tell me some things about me that they could only find on my Facebook account, which is protected from public viewing and should only be accessible to my networks and friends. Almost immediately, they replied with my birth date, the name of my hometown, the name of my fiancé and my political views. That’s scary (and more proof is available if you click the link below).”

Rightfuly, the site doesn’t explain exactly where/how the leak is hacked, but does refer to a Register article that gives details of how Facebook Search can expose many of these details.

FBHive says they have contacted Facebook via a number of channels but have received no response.

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