15 Million ClearVoice Records Quietly Surfaced on a Hacking Forum

HEROIC analysts identified 15,000,495 exposed records tied to a ClearVoice Surveys data breach. ClearVoice Surveys is a market research company, and the exposed data originates from a 2015 database backup that was left publicly accessible and later taken and redistributed on a hacking forum. The exposed dataset includes email addresses, phone numbers, plaintext passwords, first names, last names, birthdays, and gender.

15 Million ClearVoice Records Quietly Surfaced on a Hacking Forum

This breach did not start with a sophisticated hack. A database backup sat somewhere publicly accessible for years before someone found it, downloaded it, and shared it. That kind of quiet exposure is often more dangerous than a loud, headline grabbing breach, because affected users had no reason to know their information was ever at risk until the data started circulating. With over 15 million records involved, this is one of the larger exposures in our database, and the range of personal details included makes it especially serious.

What Was Exposed

• Email addresses
• Phone numbers
• Plaintext passwords
• First names
• Last names
• Birthdays
• Gender

Why This Matters

This is not just a list of emails and passwords. It combines a full name, birthday, gender, and phone number with a plaintext password for each of over 15 million people. That combination is enough for identity theft on its own, since it gives attackers the core details often used to verify identity with banks, phone carriers, and other services. Add in a working, unencrypted password, and attackers gain a direct path to account takeover as well, especially for anyone who reused that password across other accounts.

How a Database Backup Becomes a Breach

This incident is classified as a database breach, but its origin is a reminder that breaches do not always involve someone actively hacking a company's live systems. Here, a backup copy of ClearVoice Surveys' database from 2015 was left somewhere accessible on the internet, likely due to a misconfigured storage location, and it stayed that way until someone discovered it and pulled the data years later. Storing passwords in plaintext within that backup made the eventual exposure far worse, since anyone who found the file gained instantly usable login credentials for millions of accounts.

Check If You Are Affected

With more than 15 million records exposed, including full names, birthdays, and plaintext passwords, this is a breach worth checking seriously. HEROIC's free breach scanner searches more than 400 billion leaked records to show you exactly where your information has surfaced, including this ClearVoice Surveys breach. Run a free scan today and change any passwords you may have reused across other accounts.