More than 7,000 people have signed up for a mass action lawsuit in Irish courts against Facebook. The case, organised by Digital Rights Ireland, is over a global data leak that exposed the mobile phone numbers of 530 million people.
People are really upset about this, not least because Facebook doesn’t appear to be taking it seriously. There are at least 1.3m Irish numbers alone, matched perfectly against full names and, in many cases, occupation or location.
The least that we can expect is a new wave of scam texts or Whatsapps. But for a few thousand people, it could be a lot more serious. The names and numbers of gardai, sitting judges, prison officers and others in sensitive positions are among the numbers leaked.
As are roles such as management positions in womens’ refuges and other places that could be prone to harassing or predatory contact. All are easily searchable.
In this week’s podcast, Adrian talks to the director of Digital Rights Ireland, Antoin O’Lachtnain, about the leak and the case.
Digital Rights Ireland is taking the Irish court action under European GDPR rules and says that an award of between €300 and €12,000 in damages is “comparable” to what might occur in its Facebook case.
Former Facebook worker Carey Lening, who now works on privacy and security issues with Castlebridge, also joins the podcast to talk about her experience and where we go from here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.