According to several reports, an internal Facebook email was sent accidently sent to Belgium-based Data News on the 8th of April, revealed the strategy for dealing with a data breach, which leaked the data of 533 million users. 

Data breaches are a huge concern for all businesses which hold confidential user data; and Facebook users will not be pleased to hear the social media platform labelling the breach as a ‘normal occurrence’. This isn’t the first time Facebook have been in the headlines regarding data breaches.  

On March 2018: Facebook made headlines after the data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy.

On December 2018: Facebook come under more scrutiny after as a report discovered the social media giant allowed over 150 companies, including Netflix, Spotify and Bing, to access large amounts of user data, such as private messages.

In a bid to play down the leak of this email, Facebook have vowed to “continue educating users about data scraping”. 

No organisation or social media network is immune to a data breach, so it’s vital businesses do all they can to keep confidential information secure. 

Facebook told the BBC: “We understand people's concerns, which is why we continue to strengthen our systems to make scraping from Facebook without our permission more difficult and go after the people behind it.

"That's why we devote substantial resources to combat it and will continue to build out our capabilities to help stay ahead of this challenge."

The data which was leaked from 533 million people in 106 countries, was posted on the hacking forum earlier this month. Although Facebook have said the data was old, it is still a concern as to how confidential data in that capacity managed to find it’s way onto a hacking forum. 

Facebook now faces questions from the Irish data commissioner as to whether they broke GDPR rules and possible legal action from EU citizens, who had information leaked such as phone numbers. 

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