A federal class-action lawsuit filed by Quora users accuses the social media company of exposing sensitive personal information of up to 100 million people to hackers, leaving the victims vulnerable to a wide range of potential cyber crimes and scams.
WHAT IS QUORA?
Quora is a question-and-answer platform where questions are asked, answered, edited and organized by a community of users.
Launched in 2010, the company was valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2017 and now claims 300 million monthly unique users. On December 3, 2018, Quora acknowledged that user data were compromised as a result of unauthorized access by a malicious third party. This data breach had affected up to 100 million Quora users.
Although Quora does not charge its users directly to participate in its Q & A community, it does collect a wealth of personal information about them, including email addresses, encrypted passwords, and data imported from other social networks, including contacts and demographic information.
The data exposed in the breach also included access tokens, which could allow hackers to log into a Quora user’s connected social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and LinkedIn.
HOW SERIOUS IS THE DATA BREACH?
In announcing the breach, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo declared, “It is our responsibility to make sure things like this don’t happen, and we failed to meet that responsibility.”
The class action lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California by the law firms of Franklin D. Azar & Associates and Capstone Law, on behalf of named plaintiffs in Colorado and New Jersey and others similarly situated.
The complaint alleges that, as a result of the Quora data breach, the class members “have a greater risk of identity theft, manipulation, fraud, scams, and/or targeted unwanted and unnecessary advertising,” as well as “additional security risks such as phishing attempts, efforts by hackers trying to access or log in to their online accounts, friend requests from trolls or cloned or imposter accounts, and/or other interference with their online accounts.”
THE CLASS ACTION LAWYERS AT FDAZAR
FDAzar is one of the largest plaintiff law firms in Colorado, known for championing the rights of individuals who have suffered damages at the hands of large corporations. Over the past 30 years, our attorneys have secured more than $1.5 billion in compensation for our clients, including more than $750 million from Walmart in a wage and hour dispute that involved hundreds of thousands of class action participants and litigation in 26 states.
Our class action department is staffed with experienced and knowledgeable attorneys who focus on litigating large, complex cases. We are currently investigating cases involving abusive wage practices, employees whose 401(k) plans have been subject to excessive fees and mismanagement, improper fees charged by investment companies, data security issues affecting Facebook users, and more.
If you have suffered damages as a result of unfair business practices, data breaches, or corporate misconduct, the class action attorneys at FDAzar may be able to help. Speak with a member of our class-action team today or contact us here. The consultation is free.
