TECHNOLOGY · VERIFIED DEVELOPMENT
ClarityCheck Exposes Millions of Photos and Personal Data
WHY IT MATTERS
This incident highlights the importance of secure data storage and handling, particularly when dealing with sensitive information like personal photos and contact details.
What happened
A security researcher discovered that ClarityCheck, a people-search tool, left over 9 million image files, including photographs of people's faces, publicly exposed. The images were stored in an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket, accessible through a URL in the company's website code.
Additionally, people's email addresses and phone numbers were also exposed.
ClarityCheck's website claims to help identify individuals through various searches, including photo searches.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Reverse-lookup service exposed millions of photos of people’s faces
Ars Technica · lily Hay Newman, Matt Burgess, WIRED.com · Discovery only; Condé Nast copyright terms apply