Instagram exposed data of celebrities, influencers, reports reveal

Instagram’s past may be coming back to haunt it, as an unresolved mystery may cause its most popular and profitable users to lose trust in the social network, Slash Gear reports.

Security researcher Anurag Sen discovered a database, hosted by Amazon Web Services, that held millions of records associated with celebrities and influencers on Instagram.

According to Sen, the data doesn’t just include public information like bios, and followers and locations but also private and critical information like e-mail address and phone number.

Sen said; “To make matters worse, however, is that the database was left exposed and without a password, inviting anyone, including hackers, to simply take a look inside and pilfer the data.”

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Reports say the database was apparently owned by Mumbai-based social media marketing firm Chtrbox.

Unfortunately, many of those included in the database reported having had no dealings with the company. Chtrbox has taken down the database but has remained silent on the matter.

Facebook and Instagram are reportedly already on the case, but even they have no idea how Chtrbox was able to scrape even private information.

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