[PeterisP]

In your opinion, what are the practical risks to them? What actual interference in their daily lives has the FB leak caused or is likely to cause, which would justify e.g. the effort and inconvenience of switching their phone number? Has anyone abused the data leak against them in some way? If not, how likely is that someone would actually do so?

[gingerlime]

I guess identity theft is the most likely risk? but who knows? and humans are pretty bad at calculating such risks. Changing your phone number is a pretty concrete hassle though, and I guess none of them estimated it worth the hassle… It’s just some anecdata to support the parent’s point.

[PeterisP]

If your threat model is mostly about identity theft, then switching your phone number and going off whatsapp won't help at all; going off facebook might limit it a bit but not really, as data in FB leaks isn't that relevant to identity theft, that's usually done based on leaks of your data from e.g. Experian which you can't prevent. There are a bunch of somewhat reasonable precautions against identity theft (credit freezes, filing taxes early to prevent tax refund fraud, etc), but those don't include switching your phone number and abandoning FB/Whatsapp.

So from looking at that risk it seems quite clear that no, it's not worth the hassle, because the hassle is real but the benefits are not. It may be different for other risks, of course - e.g. if OP was worried about a specific abusive ex stalking one of their family, that would be a very different story.

[Zachsa999]

> It's just some anecdata to support the parents point.

[pasabagi]

Acquaintances of mine had the personal data used to give a believable aura to automated blackmail attempts ('we know what porn you're watching', etc). Which didn't work, but still, it's quite threatening having some random python script from Macedonia knowing a bunch of details about your private life.

[PeterisP]

One thing that works is the scams where if someone is traveling (more common pre-Covid..) and their friends/relatives get a message from them saying that they're in trouble (for example, with corrupt local cops) and need some money right now. But that mostly feeds off not leaks, but generally available social media data, as that's always fresh.