The world is already up in arms over the collection and selling of internet user data.  Big tech profits strip away individual rights to privacy.  There is an ongoing battle around how user data is collected and the rights of the people.  Topping of the list of challenges is the tracking, collection and selling of data belonging to children.

While this conversation continues to be a media highlight, what has not been openly discussed is the ongoing efforts of hackers to steal data and the less than effective measures big tech is taking to protect the data it collects and stores.

Countless breaches of systems including government, education, healthcare, and numerous other industries have revealed billions of data records have been breached, hacked or lazily left publicly exposed, accounting for billions of dollars in loss and hardship from identity theft.

Business Insider reports that, researchers at the cybersecurity firm Cyble said they found upwards of 500,000 Zoom accounts up for grabs on hacker forums and the dark web. Cyble said it was able to purchase about 530,000 accounts for $0.0020 each. It also said it found some accounts that were being given away to enable "Zoombombing" attacks.

This doesn't mean Zoom got hacked — the accounts were obtained using "credential stuffing," where hackers use passwords and emails leaked in previous data breaches, according to Bleeping Computer. If you use the same password across lots of accounts, including your Zoom account, you should change it to a unique password.

[ Side note: If you allow your browser to store passwords, it will also tell you when a password has been breached.]

Forbes reports that, 267 Million Facebook users data was sold for $540. The data included email addresses, names, Facebook IDs, dates of birth and phone numbers.

Facebook said it has more than 2.3 billion active monthly users worldwide.  137 million Facebook users information  was captured by a British analytics firm apparently with Facebooks knowledge.  Of course there a ripple effect. Once hackers gain access to the accounts they also gain access to apps like Instagram, Spotify and hundreds of others that allow users log on to using their Facebook account.

540 million Facebook users  records were publicly exposed on Amazon's cloud computing service.  It exposed 146 gigabytes of Facebook user data, including account names, IDs and details about comments and reactions to posts.

About 3.5 billion people saw their personal data stolen in the biggest breaches of this century.

Adobe 

Date: October 2013

Impact: 153 million user records

Adult Friend Finder 

FriendFinder Network - adult content websites.

Date: October 2016

412.2 million accounts

Stolen data spanned 20 years on six databases.

Avon

Cosmetics

19 million records

Canva

Australian graphic design tool website.

Date: May 2019

137 million user accounts

eBay

Date: May 2014

145 million users

Equifax

One of the largest credit bureaus in the US.

Date: July 29, 2017

147.9 million consumers

Dubsmash

New York-based video messaging service.

Date: December 2018

162 million user accounts

Heartland Payment Systems 

Credit card processor.

Date: March 2008

134 million credit cards exposed

LinkedIn

As the major social network for business professionals.

Date: 2012 (and 2016)

165 million user accounts

Marriott International

Starwood hotel brands.

Date: 2014-18

500 million customers

Microsoft 

According to Forbes post January 22, 2020

250 Million Customer Records spanning 14 yeaers Exposed Online.

My Fitness Pal

UnderArmor-owned fitness app.

Date: February 2018

150 million user accounts

MySpace

Date: 2013

360 million user accounts

NetEase

Provider of mailbox services. 

Date: October 2015

235 million user accounts

Sina Weibo

China’s answer to Twitter.

Date: March 2020

538 million accounts

Yahoo

Date: 2013-14

3 billion user accounts

Zynga

Farmville creator Zynga is still one the biggest players in the mobile game space 

Date: September 2019

218 million user accounts

For more information on data privacy, visit PrivacyRights.org.

For a long list of data breaches, visit Wikipedia.