Redfin Exposes Users' Personal Info on Listing Contact Forms, Leaving Millions Vulnerable.
A recent security flaw on the online real estate platform Redfin exposed millions of users' personal information on listing contact forms, leaving many vulnerable to potential exploitation. According to a spokesperson for the company, the error was active for less than a week and was remediated as soon as they became aware of it.
The vulnerability allowed other users who logged onto listings to view random users' names, email addresses, and phone numbers momentarily when a contact information form popped up on a listing. However, if JavaScript was disabled in browsers, the personal identification information remained visible even after the initial exposure.
Redfin, with 50 million monthly users according to its parent company Rocket, has faced criticism for not providing adequate security measures to protect user data. The company's privacy policy states that private information may be shared when prompted by a disclaimer, but this was not present on the contact form used in listings.
Experts warn that inadvertently revealing user information is an ongoing problem affecting many web services. In this case, using reverse phone number and email search databases confirmed that the exposed information belonged to real people, not just dummy data.
A recent security flaw on the online real estate platform Redfin exposed millions of users' personal information on listing contact forms, leaving many vulnerable to potential exploitation. According to a spokesperson for the company, the error was active for less than a week and was remediated as soon as they became aware of it.
The vulnerability allowed other users who logged onto listings to view random users' names, email addresses, and phone numbers momentarily when a contact information form popped up on a listing. However, if JavaScript was disabled in browsers, the personal identification information remained visible even after the initial exposure.
Redfin, with 50 million monthly users according to its parent company Rocket, has faced criticism for not providing adequate security measures to protect user data. The company's privacy policy states that private information may be shared when prompted by a disclaimer, but this was not present on the contact form used in listings.
Experts warn that inadvertently revealing user information is an ongoing problem affecting many web services. In this case, using reverse phone number and email search databases confirmed that the exposed information belonged to real people, not just dummy data.
I'm not surprised to hear about Redfin's security flaw. It just goes to show how vulnerable our personal info is online. 50 million users is a huge number, you can't just click away and expect everything to be secure. And yeah, it makes sense that the error was only discovered when other people started poking around... shouldn't they've caught that one themselves? 
. I mean, 50 million monthly users is a lot of people and it's crazy they didn't have better security measures in place 
. I've had my share of online mishaps over the years but at least I know what to do if something goes wrong 
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. But mistakes can happen and it's how we learn from them that matters 
. The fact that they fixed it quick is good, but the fact that it happened in the first place is what's worrying 
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. Redfin may have learned a valuable lesson from this mistake, but the rest of us can learn too 
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. Like, millions of people's names, email addresses, and phone numbers were just sitting there for anyone to see 
. And it was only fixed after like 5 days? That's crazy! I'm surprised no one got hacked yet 
. And what's even more messed up is that they didn't even have a disclaimer on the contact form saying that this info might be shared 
. It just goes to show how much some companies don't care about protecting their users' data 
. I mean, 50 million monthly users can't all be wrong, right? 
! i mean, i know we all want easy access to info on listings, but come on Redfin 
! how could this security flaw even happen? its like, super easy to protect user data, and yet they just kinda... forgot 
. now millions of ppl are left vulnerable, and thats a big deal 
I'm literally shaking my head about this Redfin thing... like, how do they mess up so big? 50 million users and they can't even get their security act together? It's crazy to think that millions of people have had their personal info exposed for like, a whole week 
. And yeah, experts say it's not an isolated incident - this is just another example of how vulnerable we are online. I mean, what's the point of having all that personal info if companies can't even keep it safe? 
i feel like redfin should've been more careful when making updates to their website 
anyway i was watching a video of my fave k-drama the other day and it made me think about how much info we share online without even thinking about it... like my facebook profile is public but my instagram is private lol do u think that's weird? 
. i mean, 50 million users is a lot, but it's crazy that they didn't catch this earlier 
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idk what's more annoying is that experts say this kinda thing happens all the time and companies just keep on ignoring it 
. anyway, i hope redfin takes responsibility for their mistake and makes things right 
. I mean, I'm not saying Redfin is the worst company ever or anything, but this just shows you gotta stay on top of things if you wanna protect user data 
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anyway so this security flaw is pretty wild I mean who wants their email and phone number out there for anyone to see? it's not just about the users who had info exposed but also all the scammers and spammers who could use that info to get all the free goodies. 50 million monthly users huh that's a lot of people my mom uses Redfin to find houses she's super into buying this is actually kinda alarming I wonder how many times this has happened on other websites too 
. What's next, exposing our social media passwords or something? 
. And yeah, experts say this is an ongoing problem, but shouldn't these companies be doing more to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the first place?