Mark Zuckerberg Uses WhatsApp Rival 'Signal' App, Facebook Data Leak Reveals

Facebook recently was in the news for another massive data leak affecting the privacy and security of 533 million Facebook users.

And surprisingly, Facebook CEO too couldn¡¯t safeguard his own data as his personal details were found in the leaked database of over 500 million Facebook users.

Reuters

But what was shocking is that this leak led to the discovery that Mark Zuckerberg also uses Signal app -- which is a WhatsApp rival.

Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg Wants To 'Inflict Pain¡¯ On Apple For Comments Against Facebook

This was revealed by a security researcher who goes by the name of Dave Walker (or @Daviey). The leak revealed not just Mark Zuckerberg's phone number, it leaked out data like Zuckerberg's marriage details, birthday, location, etc, available on Facebook.

In another turn of events, Mark Zuckerberg also respects his own privacy, by using a chat app that has end-to-end encryption and isn't owned by @facebook

This is the number associated with his account from the recent facebook leak. https://t.co/AXbXrF4ZxE

¡ª Dave Walker (@Daviey) April 4, 2021

However, what shocked most users was that Zuckerberg was himself a part of the Signal app -- a rival and competitor for WhatsApp, developed by WhatsApp¡¯s founder Brian Acton.

ALSO READ: Brian Acton Is Founder Of WhatsApp And Signal, He Wants To Keep Your Data Private

People are angry for obvious reasons, considering Apple is still pushing on with its new Privacy Policy for WhatsApp where the messaging app wants to share more data with its parent company. This led to a mass digital exodus from WhatsApp to more secure texting platforms like Telegram and Signal.

The leak was first highlighted by one Israeli security researcher Alon Gal on his Twitter handle. The security researcher came across a massive data dump on the dark web. Surprisingly, a data dump like this is sold for big bucks on the dark web, however, the hacker decided to keep it open for everyone to access.

ALSO READ: How To Switch From WhatsApp To Signal Messenger App

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Gal stated in a tweet, ¡°In early 2020 a vulnerability that enabled seeing the phone number linked to every Facebook account was exploited, creating a database containing the information of 533 million users across all countries. It was severely under-reported and today the database became much more worrisome.¡±

Also Read: 12 Influential People Who Hate Facebook And Feel Mark Zuckerberg Needs To Do Better Job

The Facebook vulnerability was first discovered in 2019, according to the social media giant, however, it claimed that it had patched this loophole.

However, according to Alon, even after being fixed it continued to offer confidential user information to cybercriminals. Out of the 533 million affected users who have become victims of this breach, 6 million are from India.