Instagram on Thursday said it was not the source WHY;;
Instagram on
Thursday said it was not the source of private contact information for millions
of influential users of the service recently found in an unguarded online
database.
The online cache of
data, which was discovered by a security researcher, was written about Monday
by news site TechCrunch, which reported that it was traced back to
Mumbai-based social media marketing firm Chtrbox.
"We take any
allegation of data misuse seriously," an Instagram spokesperson
said Thursday.
Following an initial
investigation into the claims made in this story, we found that no private
emails or phone numbers of Instagram users were accessed."
The Chtrbox database
contained publicly available information from an array of sources, one of which
was Instagram, according to the image-centric social network.
In response to an
AFP inquiry, Chtrbox said a database for influencers was
"inadvertently" exposed for about 72 hours but did not include any
sensitive personal information.
Information in the
database was compiled from public sources or provided by influencers
themselves, according to Chtrbox.
"No personal
data has been sourced through unethical means by Chtrbox," the company
said, adding that the database was for internal research use only.
The database was
reported to include email addresses and phone numbers as well as public
information from account profiles.
The database
reportedly lacked a password or encryption, and was said to have more than 49
million records in it before being taken offline after a query was made to
Chtrbox.
