The worst privacy scandals to date.

It’s concerning.

Whenever we use our devices to go on online, whether if its: social media, researching information or watching videos. We can never really feel safe anymore knowing that apps like Facebook, Amazon and Instagram not only have access to our personal information but are able to use that information for their own purposes. And what makes it even worse is that it doesn’t necessarily need to be internet-related. It could be from the products you purchase to the service you experience. It’s very concerning and worrying at the same time.

In saying this, I’m going to take you through some of the worst privacy scandals that have happened so far.

1. Facebook- Cambridge Analytica

This was one of the biggest privacy scandals that occurred. A major political scandal in early 2018 when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had gathered the personal data of about 50 million peoples’ Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes.

Facebook exposed the data of millions of Facebook users to a researcher who worked at Cambridge Analytica, who apparently worked for the Trump campaign. Hence, there was some speculation that the access to this data was one of the reasons why Donald Trump became president in the US elections.

It all started when researcher Aleksander Kogan from Cambridge University developed an app called “This Is Your Digital Life”. Giving access to Cambridge Analytics, Kogan was able to retrieve the personal information of not only the Facebook user but friends of the user from the app.

During his Testimony on April 2018, Mark Zuckerburg publicity apologized for this breach and said “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here”.

2. Weeping Angel

In April 2017, Wikileaks released a document that exposed a CIA created tool called “Weeping Angel”. Weeping Angel was known as an alleged spying tool, co-developed by the CIA and MI5 security agency. It was apparently used in Samsung Smart TV’s where it pretends to turn itself off – and record your conversations – when you’re not using it so to obtain information back to the spies.

If this turned out to be true, it’ll go down as one of the worst privacy breaches of all time.

3. Equifax Credit Scandal

Equifax is a US credit agency with the purpose of keeping track of the credit information for all US citizens. In September 2017, Equifax admitted that the hackers found a weak spot in a web app and tapped into crucial records.

The data breach had compromised very important personal information: social security numbers, addresses, birthdays and drivers’ licence were some of the information. 143 million Americans including Canadian customers were affected as Equifax will pay at least $575 million, and potentially as much as $700 million to settle allegations over its massive data breach.

Hackers behind the breach have still yet to be identified by authorities.

4. Privacy Scandal of Yahoo

With literally billions of accounts, Yahoo’s mail service is one of the most popular in the world. Yahoo reported two major data breaches of user account data to hackers; first occurred in mid-2013 and then in late 2014. It was later found out at 3 billion of its user accounts were impacted. I don’t know about you but that is a very scary number.

Specific details of material taken included names, email addresses, telephone numbers and even hashed passwords. There was no doubt that Yahoo faced multiple lawsuits because of this and I’m not sure whether Yahoo can ever gain the trust back from their users and recover from this breach. I’m certainly never using Yahoo again – not like I ever did anyway.

5. eBay scandal

Still being one of the largest online marketplaces in the world, eBay suffered a huge breach back in 2014. According to BusinessWire, auction site and global retailer eBay is the latest victim and has been hit by a huge cyberattack that compromised its main database holding user passwords. It all started with hackers compromising a small number of employee’s log-in details.

The hackers gained access to information including customers’ names, passwords, email, addresses, phone numbers and date of birth – the usual stuff in every online breach.

An email was later issued which informed all eBay users to urgently change their password. From what I know, no one actually lost any money or information through this breach, but imagine what could’ve been if they did; very lucky indeed especially if you’re a big purchaser of eBay.

These were only some of the many privacy scandals faced by major organizations and highly known individuals. Nowadays, we always have to be careful of the things we provide online. Sometimes it is beyond our control to avoid these scandals from happening as companies like Facebook and eBay have also shown that despite their popularity and great reputations around the world, they don’t have the power to stop these hackers from doing what they want.

The real physical world is already dangerous enough and now it’s just as dangerous out there in the online world. I’m not saying from now on you guys should stop using apps like Facebook but make sure you limit the amount of personal information you provide online or else who knows; you might be the next victim of a future online scandal.

Have you guys ever been involved in an online scandal before? Please let me know in the comments and show your interest by sharing this post.

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