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Instagram Accused of Leaking Phone Numbers, Email Addresses

Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Instagram. (Reuters)
Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Instagram. (Reuters)
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Instagram Accused of Leaking Phone Numbers, Email Addresses

Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Instagram. (Reuters)
Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Instagram. (Reuters)

Instagram's website leaked user contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses, a researcher said, according to the CNET website.

Data scientists David Stier said that the source code for some Instagram user profiles included the account holder's contact information whenever it loaded in a web browser, adding that he notified Instagram shortly after he discovered the problem earlier this year, the German news agency reported.

The contact information wasn't displayed on the account holder's profiles on the desktop version of the Instagram website, although it was used by the photo sharing site's app for communication.

According to Stier, the exposure appeared to include contact information for thousands of accounts, which belonged to private, businesses and brands. Including the information in the source code could let hackers scrape the data from the Instagram website, allowing them to assemble a virtual phone book.

Instagram spokeswoman Stephanie Otway said: "The contact information discovered in this case is not private contact information, but contact information a member of the Instagram community chose to share when converting their profile to a Business Profile."

Stier said he found evidence that the phone numbers and emails had been in the source code since at least October by looking at archived versions of Instagram profiles.

He reported the problem to Instagram in February and the problem was fixed in March.

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Varieties

Olympic Balloon to Rise again in Paris

The iconic symbol of the 2024 Paris Olympic will take to the skies during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
The iconic symbol of the 2024 Paris Olympic will take to the skies during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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Olympic Balloon to Rise again in Paris

The iconic symbol of the 2024 Paris Olympic will take to the skies during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
The iconic symbol of the 2024 Paris Olympic will take to the skies during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique. Thomas SAMSON / AFP

A giant balloon that became a popular landmark over the skies of Paris during the 2024 Olympics is set to rise again, with organizers hoping it will once again attract crowds of tourists.

During the Games, the Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flew above the Tuileries garden at sunset every day, with thousands flocking to see the seven-meter (23 feet) wide ring of electric fire, AFP said.

Last summer's version "had been thought up to last for the length of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Mathieu Lehanneur, the designer of the cauldron.

After President Emmanuel Macron "decided to bring it back, all of the technical aspects needed to be reviewed", he told AFP on Thursday.

Lehanneur said he was "very moved" that the Olympic balloon was making a comeback.

"The worst thing would have been for this memory to become a sitting relic that couldn't fly anymore," he said.

The new cauldron will take to the skies on Saturday evening during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique.

The balloon will rise into the air every evening until September 14 -- a summer tradition set to return every year until the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

"For its revival, we needed to make sure it changed as little as possible and that everything that did change was not visible," said Lehanneur.

With a decarbonated fire patented by French energy giant EDF, the upgraded balloon follows "the same technical principles" as its previous version, said director of innovation at EDF Julien Villeret.

The improved attraction "will last ten times longer" and be able to function for "300 days instead of 30", according to Villeret.

The creators of the balloon also reinforced the light-and-mist system that "makes the flames dance", he said.

Under the cauldron, a machine room hides cables, a compressor and a hydro-electric winch.

That system will "hold back the helium balloon when it rises and pull it down during descent", said Jerome Giacomoni, president of the Aerophile group that constructed the balloon.

"Filled with 6,200 m3 of helium that is lighter than air," the Olympic balloon "will be able to lift around three tons" of cauldron, cables and attached parts, he said.

The Tuileries garden is where French inventor Jacques Charles took flight in his first gas balloon on December 1, 1783, Giacomoni added.

He followed in the footsteps of the famed Montgolfier brothers, who had just nine days earlier elsewhere in Paris managed to launch a similar balloon into the sky with humans onboard.

The website vasqueparis2024.fr is to display the times when the modern-day balloon will rise and indicate any potential cancellations due to weather conditions.