Facebook messenger eliminates searching by phone number

It seems that Facebook has taken note of the security problem on Twitter, where a hacker was able to associate phone numbers with accounts on the social network. So Facebook Messenger is working to eliminate the ability to search for users by phone number in their application. It is a change that has not yet reached everyone, but that will be official shortly.

Facebook Messenger eliminates searching by phone number

Since this function could provide an attacker with data about user accounts, by being able to associate the number with an account on the social network. It will soon be part of the past.

Facebook Messenger is removing the ability to find someone by entering their phone number pic.twitter.com/NzvtpsSun7

- Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) December 28, 2019

Improving security

This change is already visible to some Facebook Messenger users, who will see that they cannot perform this search by phone number. It is no longer possible to associate a user with a phone number. The social network seeks to prevent a situation like the one that Twitter has lived through, covering a possible hole in its security, which is surely key.

Since in the case of Twitter, it is estimated that 17 million users are affected. Considering the popularity of Facebook Messenger, the number of victims could be higher in many cases. So it is a necessary measure.

This should be official in a few days, some people like Jane Wong have been able to verify that this function is already disabled. But at the moment nothing else is known about it, nor has the social network made official statements about this change.

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