<p>Facebook Inc on Tuesday said a recently reported data leak affecting potentially 530 million users stemmed from a misuse of a feature in 2019 and that the company had plugged the hole after identifying the problem at the time.</p>.<p>Business Insider reported last week that phone numbers and other details from user profiles were available in a public database. Facebook said "malicious actors" had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by "scraping" profiles using a vulnerability in the social media service's tool to sync contacts.</p>.<p>The company said it identified the issue at the time and modified the tool.</p>.<p>"As a result of the action we took, we are confident that the specific issue that allowed them to scrape this data in 2019 no longer exists," Facebook said in a blog post.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc on Tuesday said a recently reported data leak affecting potentially 530 million users stemmed from a misuse of a feature in 2019 and that the company had plugged the hole after identifying the problem at the time.</p>.<p>Business Insider reported last week that phone numbers and other details from user profiles were available in a public database. Facebook said "malicious actors" had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by "scraping" profiles using a vulnerability in the social media service's tool to sync contacts.</p>.<p>The company said it identified the issue at the time and modified the tool.</p>.<p>"As a result of the action we took, we are confident that the specific issue that allowed them to scrape this data in 2019 no longer exists," Facebook said in a blog post.</p>