German quiz app leaked data of 120 mn Facebook users: Report
San Francisco, June 29 : In another massive leak, the private data of about 120 million users was compromised by a developer of Facebook quizzes called "NameTests", the media reported.
A security researcher has revealed that the personality quiz app was exposing the details it had amassed to third-parties online since 2016.
The company behind "NameTests", a German app maker Social Sweethearts, created popular social quizzes like "Which Disney Princess Are You?" and distributed them on the social networking site.
"Writing in a Medium post, the security researcher who filed the report -- self-styled 'hacker' Inti De Ceukelaire explains, he went hunting for data abusers on Facebook's platform after the company announced a data abuse bounty on April 10 as it scrambled to present a responsible face to the world," TechCrunch reported late on Thursday.
The researcher said he began his search by noting down what third party apps his Facebook friends were using.
"He already knew quizzes had a reputation for being data-suckers in a distracting wrapper. So he took his first ever Facebook quiz, from a brand called NameTests.com, and quickly realised the company was exposing Facebook users' data to 'any third-party that requested it'," the report added.
The compromised data reportedly included names, date of birth, posts, status, photos and friend lists and kept getting leaked even after users deleted the app.
Ceukelaire attempted to contact Facebook about this multiple times and was told that the company would look into it, according to The Verge.
The social networking giant was hit by a major data scandal in March after Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting company, was accused of harvesting data of up to 87 million Facebook users without permission to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign.
Appearing before the US Congress, the company CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the lawmakers that his own personal data was part of the users' data that was 'improperly shared' with the British political consultancy firm.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
