Facebook hack: What information was taken

REUTERS/Steve
Marcus

• A massive attack on Facebook by unidentified hackers
  impacted 29 million people.
• The majority of data taken was personal names and phone
  numbers.
• For some people, much more information was taken — date
  of birth, location, religion, and a variety of other
  details.

Facebook announced

important new details Friday about the massive
hack that affected 29 million users of its social
network — and it’s much worse than we thought.

A mess of personal information, including details about people’s
recent locations, phone numbers and search histories, was taken
by the as-yet unidentified hackers. 

After all, Facebook serves as an online identity for many people.

“For 15 million people, attackers accessed two sets of
information – name and contact details (phone number, email, or
both, depending on what people had on their profiles),” Facebook
said in a blog post Friday.

“For 14 million people, the attackers accessed the same two sets
of information, as well as other details people had on their
profiles,” the post said. 

For anyone who’s filled out a Facebook profile page, those “other
details people had on their profiles” can amount to a
lot of personal information: Stuff like your birthdate,
where you went to school, who you’re in a relationship with —
even your religion. It all depends on what you volunteered to
Facebook when you filled out your profile page.

Here’s the full list of information that hackers might have
gotten if you’re one of the unlucky 29 million impacted people:

• Username
• Gender
• Locale/language
• Relationship status
• Religion
• Hometown
• Self-reported current city
• Birthdate
• Device types used to access Facebook
• Education
• Work
• The last 10 places you checked into or were tagged in
• Website
• People or Pages you follow
• The 15 most recent searches

Wondering whether or not you’re affected? So were we! Head to
this Facebook page while logged into Facebook, and scroll to
the bottom to find out.