San Francisco marketing company scraped MILLIONS of users’ data from Instagram – including bios, photos from Stories, and physical locations, report reveals
- Instagram sent cease and desist letter to a startup called HYP3R on Wednesday
- Business Insider reveals HYP3R was able to scrape data from millions of users
- HYP3R was able to save users Stories and hone in on specific locations
A bombshell report has revealed how Instagram’s ‘lax oversight’ allowed a San Francisco-based startup to collect data on millions of its users without their knowledge – including the disappearing photos posted as Stories.
The Facebook-owned company sent a cease and desist letter to marketing firm HYP3R – one of its vetted advertising partners – after an investigation by Business Insider uncovered the shocking violations.
Instagram has since banned HYP3R from its platform, but not before the company was able to siphon out the personal data of millions for roughly a year, according to Business Insider.
A bombshell report has revealed how Instagram’s ‘lax oversight’ allowed a San Francisco-based startup to collect data on millions of its users without their knowledge – including the disappearing photos posted as Stories
The revelation comes just over a year after Facebook came under fire for its failure to protect users data in the now well-known Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Many months on, and after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to testify in front of Congress, it appears the social media giant is still struggling to get a grip on privacy.
While all of the information obtained by HYP3R came from public profiles, the investigation highlights the startling reality that content shared to Stories under the guise that it will disappear in 24 hours may unknowingly make its way into the hands of third-party entities.
According to Business Insider, HYP3R was able to save users’ Stories and hone in on specific locations, including hotels and gyms.
HYP3R also collected personal information from public profiles including users’ bios and followers, and used image-recognition software to identify what’s going on in their photos, the report reveals.
In a statement to Dailymail.com, a Facebook spokesperson reiterated that the startup went against its policies and has since been banned.
‘HYP3R’s actions were not sanctioned and violate our policies,’ the spokesperson said.
‘As a result, we’ve removed them from our platform. We’ve also made a product change that should help prevent other companies from scraping public location pages in this way.’
Dailymail.com was unable to reach HYP3R for comment at the time of publication; attempts to email the company instead bounce back with an error message saying it ‘couldn’t be delivered.’