Facebook will not notify the more than half a billion people caught up in a huge leak of personal information, it has said. Over the weekend, it emerged that a vast trove of data on more than 530 million users – containing information including their phone numbers and dates of birth – was being made freely available online. Facebook said that the data was gathered before 2019. It later said that " "malicious actors" had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by "scraping" profiles using a vulnerability in the platform's tool for synching contacts, and that the loophole that allowed them to do so had now been closed. But it said that it did not inform users when the leak happened, and does not have plans to do so now.

A security firm is warning millions of users that a vast data breach has exposed their biometric information - including fingerprints and facial scans. The private data was found on a free to access site and contained sensitive information on a system used by banks and the police as well as thousands of other firms. It is currently unknown as to the extent of the leak but security researchers are warning it could have devastating repercussions if it falls into the wrong hands. A total of 23 gigabytes of data was found to be at risk, totalling nearly 30 million records. Security company Suprema is the firm which owns the software at fault which is often used to access secure facilities with fingerprints or facial recognition.