Opinion
30 Mar 18

MyFitnessPal Joins Facebook in Data Breach Dock

The revelation that data on 150 million users of the Under Armour-owned fitness app has been breached by a hacker will set further alarm bells ringing among members of the public across the world

Social media and tech companies were dealt a new body-blow today, with the revelation that there had been a massive date breach of the MyFitness Pal app – which is operated by the Baltimore-based sports manufacturer Under Armour.

The company has admitted that its fitness app was hacked, and that information on about 150 million users was accessed in the process by the hackers.

This revelation comes in the middle of a huge controversy concerning the data breach, affecting 500 million Facebook users. The Facebook breach enabled the targeting of individuals in the US Presidential election, which brought Donald Trump to power, in a way which swayed the election result, the company which triggered the Facebook breach, Cambridge Analytics, has claimed.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) has attempted to assuage Facebook users, and belatedly apologised for the data breach – but the companies share value has plummeted as a result.Meanwhile, Hot Press has issued a challenge to Facebook concerning its policy on advertising in connection with the upcoming abortion referendum in Ireland.

Under Armour, which also manufactures footwear, sportswear and “casual apparel”, has now confirmed that what is a vast and very disturbing data breach has been reported to law enforcement agencies in the US. While there is no obvious political dimension to this latest breach, it will spark a further, alarming escalation of mistrust in tech companies, and in apps. Urban Armour have also brought in outside consultants to limit the damage. The company first became aware of the breach on March 25th. The MyFitnessPal app enables users to track activity and calorie on their smartphones.

The company has admitted that an "unauthorised party" obtained usernames, email addresses, and what they call ‘hashed' passwords. The company have scrambled to reassure users of the app that the breach did not affect social security numbers, drivers’ licences or credit card data.

Users were being notified of the breach by email and messaging, and being advised to update settings to protect their account information.

The investigation, according to the company, is "ongoing."