Would you be surprised to know that automated programs are scouring social media platforms like Facebook to collect all publicly available information and compile it into databases? Individual pieces of information may not be that useful, but together they can allow hackers to commit all sorts of digital crimes, like credential theft and phishing attacks. And Meta has plenty of it.

While the social network itself is taking steps to catch and contain these automated programs, called scrapers, the platform has now decided to enlist the help of independent security researchers by expanding its bug bounty programs. The goal is not only to fix the bugs that leak such details about its users, but also to help find such databases that contain scraped information.

“The bug bounty program will help close the holes in Facebook's defenses against scraping and alert Meta to pirated databases appearing on the web,” Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate and editor of infosec research firm Comparitech, told Lifewire via email.

Meta called scraping an "Internet-wide challenge" when it announced the expansion of its bug bounty program, originally designed to find software bugs in the platform's code.