Personal information about 235million users of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have been shared online.
The data was scraped by a company called Social Data - which sells information to marketers and influencers - and shared online, according to Comparitech.
The data included names, contact information, personal information, images and statistics about followers.
A spokesman for Comparitech said: “The profiles were taken from publicly viewable social media pages on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
“Security researcher Bob Diachenko, who leads Comparitech’s cybersecurity research team, uncovered three identical copies of the exposed data on August 1.”
Speaking to Comparitech, a spokesperson for Social Data said: “Please, note that the negative connotation that the data has been hacked implies that the information was obtained surreptitiously.
“This is simply not true, all of the data is available freely to ANYONE with Internet access. I would appreciate it if you could ensure that this is made clear.
“Anyone could phish or contact any person that indicates telephone and email on his social network profile description in the same way even without the existence of the database. […] Social networks themselves expose the data to outsiders – that is their business – open public networks and profiles. Those users who do not wish to provide information, make their accounts private.”
The database has now been shut down.
Comparitech added: “Users of Instagram and TikTok should be on the lookout for scams and phishing messages either sent directly or posted in comments.
“Even though the information is publicly available, the size and scope of an aggregated database makes it more vulnerable to mass attack than it would be in isolation.”
