CAPE TOWN – A few Instagram users have been warned by the company of a security leak that has left some users’ passwords exposed.
This was reported by Engadget under the Information, which stated that a spokesperson for Instagram said that the issue was “discovered internally and affected a very small number of people.”
A security researcher revealed to the Information that Instagram has a tool that allows users to download a copy of their own data sent these users their passwords in plain text.
The tool was made in April was implemented after European lawmakers rolled out its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
These passwords were also stored on Facebook’s servers, although they have since been deleted.
In the last facebook data breach, hackers accessed personal data of 29 million users.
The company had originally said up to 50 million accounts were affected in a cyberattack that exploited a trio of software flaws to steal "access tokens" that enable people to automatically log back onto the platform.
However, if these people were using a shared device or an insecure network, their account info was left wide open to being accessed by malicious parties.