LinkedIn data of over 700 million users listed online for sale

Data of over 700 million LinkedIn users has been put for sale online by a hacker, media reports suggest. This means data of around 92 percent of LinkedIn users was exposed, since the professional networking site has 756 million users.

The data contains personal details of LinkedIn users, including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries, Privacy Sharks reported.

The hacker, on June 22, posted a sample of data of one million users on a hacker forum, the report said.

"Our teams have investigated a set of alleged LinkedIn data that has been posted for sale. We want to be clear that this is not a data breach and no private LinkedIn member data was exposed. Our initial investigation has found that this data was scraped from LinkedIn and other various websites and includes the same data reported earlier this year in our April 2021 scraping update," LinkedIn said.

"Members trust LinkedIn with their data, and any misuse of our members' data, such as scraping, violates LinkedIn terms of service. When anyone tries to take member data and use it for purposes LinkedIn and our members haven't agreed to, we work to stop them and hold them accountable," the company said.