Facebook user records found exposed on Amazon cloud service

SAN FRANCISCO -- A US cybersecurity company said Wednesday that records of millions of Facebook users stored on Amazon's cloud servers were exposed to the public.

The cybersecurity firm UpGuard based in Mountain View, California reported that the third party developed Facebook app datasets, which totaled 146 gigabytes, contained over 540 million records detailing comments, likes, reactions, account names and Facebook IDs.

The compromised data was stored on Amazon's public cloud servers by the Mexico-based media company Cultura Colectiva, one of Facebook's partners, said UpGuard.

The information about Facebook users, though they might not be as sensitive as their Social Security Numbers, could expose their interests, relationships and interactions to third-party developers, the cybersecurity firm said.

UpGuard noted that it also found a database backup for a Facebook-integrated app called "At the Pool," which contained passwords for 22,000 users of the app.

It said no Facebook user passwords were found in the database backup of the app, which ceased operation in 2014.

The latest security breach came after Facebook has recently been under heavy scrutiny from the public and federal regulators for its handling of user privacy.

Facebook has been accused of loose management of its user data by improperly sharing its data with third-party companies.

In response to public concern for privacy, Facebook started an audit of thousands of apps and suspended hundreds of them last year to ensure information was not stored unsecured in public databases.