October 25, 2021

According to the Record, Facebook is taking legal action by suing Ukrainian Alexander Solonchenko for allegedly scrapping data about 178 million times.

In its complaints, Facebook demanded unspecified damages, while also demanding that Solonchenko be banned from accessing the company’s website and scrapping its data. In an attack carried out between 2018 and September 2019 Solonchenko reportedly exploited Messenger’s contact import feature via an automated tool that mimics Android devices.

He fed Facebook the phone numbers of millions of users and eventually carted away data as soon as the page returned information about accounts with phone numbers.

While Solonchenko began selling the large amount of stolen data in December 2020, Facebook was able to track him down after using his forum username and contact details for e-mails and job boards. Although this is not the largest incident of its kind, it demonstrates Facebook’s concisely targeted efforts to stop the scrapping of data.

For more information, read the original story in Engadget.