A leaked phone number said to belong to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has been found attached to an account on WhatsApp rival messaging app Signal.
Details from more than 500 million Facebook users were found available on a website for hackers last week, including those thought to belong to Zuckerberg.
Technologist Dave Walker spotted Zuckerberg’s name and details in the data leak, then searched the Signal app to find an account linked to the same phone number.
This isn’t confirmation Zuckerberg is using the Signal app, but it didn’t stop Signal taking to Twitter to claim he was ‘leading the way’ in an exodus from WhatsApp.
If it is a Zuckerberg account, it wouldn’t be the first time the Facebook CEO has created a profile on a rival platform, having tried Twitter and Google+ in the past.
Walker said the account associated with the Zuckerberg phone number was closed on Monday, a few days after it was first discovered.
The information on the hacker forum that appears to show Zuckerberg’s phone number is thought to be several years old.
‘This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019,’ the Menlo Park, California-based company said in a statement. ‘We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.’
Finding a Mark Zuckerberg account on a major WhatsApp rival could be embarrassing for Facebook, as the firm was hit by a massive privacy backlash that saw millions of users leave for Signal and Telegram.
Figures suggest Signal gained 7.5 million new users in the first three weeks of the year, and Telegram gained 25 million.
The mass exodus came after WhatsApp alerted users to a change in its terms and conditions, and told them they had to accept them or leave the service.
The update affects users in all countries outside of Europe and the UK, where there are strict data protection laws.
Users in these regions will be required to give their consent for Facebook to access their data, including their phone numbers and information about how they interact with others, in order to continue using the app.
The requirement will apply regardless of whether or not the WhatsApp user has a Facebook account.
While the change was originally planned to come into play from February 8, WhatsApp has pushed this back to May 15, in the hopes of holding on to its users.
Facebook hasn’t confirmed whether the Signal account actually belongs to Zuckerberg, or even if the leaked phone number was actually his.
Walker, who first revealed the existence of the Zuckerberg Signal account wrote on Twitter: ‘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.’
He said some people have tried to get hold of Mark Zuckerberg since his number, and details of the Signal account, were released online, adding that it feels like it is ‘close to becoming harassment.’
However, he personally has ‘no interest in talking to the chap.’
Apparently the hack contained information from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses.
On discovering that Zuckerberg may have a Signal account, the social messaging firm wrote on Twitter: ‘With the May 15th WhatsApp Terms of Service acceptance deadline fast approaching, Mark leads by example.’
When comparing the number of downloads from December 21 – January 3 to January 4 – January 17, WhatsApp installations fell by 16 per cent, while Signal saw a huge 9,493 per cent increase, and Telegram installations increased by 151 per cent.
WhatsApp first alerted users to the new privacy policy changes in a notification earlier this month.
The privacy policy explains: ‘As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the other Facebook Companies.
‘We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customise, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products.’
Essentially, this means Facebook will be able to access account information including your phone number, information on how you interact with other users, and logs of how often and how long you use WhatsApp.
Other data that could be shared with Facebook includes your IP address, browser details, language and time zone.
WhatsApp has confirmed that users in the UK and Europe will not have their data shared with Facebook.
Instead, they’ll be asked to agree with a different privacy policy to allow businesses to store and manage their WhatsApp chats on Facebook.
Facebook has been grappling with data security issues for years, including a feature in 2018 that allowed users to search for one another via phone number.
Speaking to MailOnline, a WhatsApp spokesperson said: ‘There are no changes to WhatsApp’s data sharing practices in the European region (including UK) arising from the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
‘For the avoidance of any doubt, it is still the case that WhatsApp does not share European region WhatsApp user data with Facebook for the purpose of Facebook using this data to improve its products or advertisements.’
The privacy policy changes will mainly affect the way businesses can communicate with customers on WhatsApp.
When speaking to businesses via WhatsApp, your messages may now be stored and managed on Facebook, if the business is run through this channel.
However, if that is the case, users should be notified and will be given the option to stop talking to the business if they’d prefer their information was not shared.
This was disabled following revelations that the political firm Cambridge Analytica had accessed information on up to 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent.
In December 2019, a Ukrainian security researcher reported finding a database with the names, phone numbers and unique user IDs of more than 267 million Facebook users – nearly all US-based – on the open internet.
It is unclear if the current data dump is related to this database.
