A database containing more than 49 million records with personal details of Instagram influencers has been made public, tech magazine TechCrunch reported yesterday.
Cybersecurity expert Anurag Sen has found the database on Amazon Web Services. Each record in the database contains not only information which is publicly available on the users' profile, but also the email address and phone number of the account holders.
The database is associated with the Indian company Chtrbox, which is specialized in social network marketing.
Each record in the database included information about the cost of the account, calculated depending on the number of subscribers, its reach, the number of "likes" as well as other indicators. This data is used to determine how much the company would pay celebrities to post an ad.
TechCrunch has contacted some of the affected users, who have confirmed they had used both the email address and phone number included in the database to set up their Instagram accounts. However, they did not even know what Chtrbox was. Chtrbox has already taken the database offline.
Representatives of the social network have said they are analyzing the information to find out where it has been obtained, whether from Instagram or from other sources. Facebook has also contacted Chtrbox.
Why it is important
- This news reminds us of a similar incident. In May last year Facebook admitted that the British consultancy company Cambridge Analytica had had access to the information of 87 million users.
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