their database contained millions of comments from Disqus users around the world who are at risk of de-anonymization. In March 2014, Expressen and Researchgruppen won the investigative reporting award Guldspaden. October 2017 security breach On October 6, 2017, Disqus announced that a snapshot of its database from 2012, containing 17.5 million users' email addresses, login names and sign-up dates from between 2007–2012, had been exposed. The data dump also included, for about a third of the affected accounts, passwords that had been salted and hashed with SHA-1. Issues with delete button Previously, if a user attempted to delete their comment, Disqus "anonymized" their comment by changing the author to a Guest user, without removing the content of the body itself. The only recourse at that time was to flag the comment, contact the site moderator to delete the anonymized Guest comment, or to remember to edit out the body of the comment before deleting a comment. In April 2015, Disqus revised their Delete button to completely delete a comment from the website. Affiliate links and third party scripts Disqus automatically adds affiliate referral code to links on the containing webpage, and converts plain text into links in order to add affiliate referral codes (this can be turned off). Disqus also injects untrusted and potentially dangerous third party advertising code into containing webpages. GDPR violation In 2021, Norwegian Data Protection Agency announced intent to fine Disqus 2.5 million euro for failures to comply with requirements of European General Data Protection Regulation. Allegedly, Disqus was collecting user private data and sharing it with advertisers without obtaining consent from websites using Disqus and users visiting those sites. References External links Internet properties established in 2007 Internet forum hosting Companies based in San Francisco 2007 establishments in California Y Combinator companies Social networking services Windows Phone software 2017 mergers and acquisitions