Instagram probes data leak by company in Mumbai

BENGALURU: Popular social network platform Instagram is investigating the massive data leak that has exposed the contact data of millions of influencers, brand accounts and celebrities.
The data set being leaked from the Facebook-owned Instagram was first reported by technology focused media platform TechCrunch. Incidentally, the report said the leaked database was traced back to a Mumbai-based social media marketing firm Chtrbox.This company works closely with influencers to promote various campaigns on Instagram.
While initial estimates suggested that the database had over 49 million records, the report mentions its size could be even bigger. Among other details, the exposed data set gave away email ids and phone contacts of these users.
“We are investigating whether a third party improperly stored Instagram data, in violation of our policies. It’s also not clear whether the phone numbers and emails in Chtrbox’s database came from Instagram. Regardless, the possibility of third parties mishandling user data is something we take seriously, which is why we’re quickly working to understand what happened,” an Instagram spokesperson said in an e-mailed response.
The development comes at a time when the Facebook group is seeing tighter scrutiny over its efforts to protect user data across the globe. Most recently, the Facebook-owned WhatsApp asked users to update their apps and mobile operating system (OS) following a suspected ‘spyware’ attack. This was in reaction to fix a loophole that allowed the spyware attack to gain ‘remote access’ by just placing a WhatsApp Call.