Bonobos, the American men's apparel retailer, suffered a data breach in August 2020 when an unauthorized party accessed a cloud backup file containing roughly 70GB of customer data. The breach stemmed from a misconfiguration that exposed the backup directly, without any need to bypass security controls. The stolen data was subsequently posted to a public hacking forum. In total, approximately 15.8 million records were compromised, affecting customers of the brand during its period of Walmart ownership. The exposed data included names, email addresses, physical addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers, and purchase histories. Passwords stored as salted SHA-512 hashes were also included, along with historical passwords from prior account activity. Partial credit card details were exposed as well, specifically card type, the name on the card, expiry date, and the last four digits. The inclusion of historical passwords is particularly notable: even where current passwords were changed, older passwords can reveal patterns in how a person constructs credentials, making other accounts easier to compromise. Purchase history adds another layer of risk by exposing personal habits and lifestyle details that can sharpen phishing and social engineering attempts. Bonobos was notified of the exposure by Troy Hunt of the breach notification service Have I Been Pwned, and the company confirmed the breach. No prominent regulatory action or settlement specific to this incident has been documented. Affected individuals remain at elevated risk of phishing, delivery impersonation scams, order fraud, and credential-stuffing attacks across other services where similar passwords may have been reused.

Direct-to-consumer apparel brands collect customer identity, contact details, addresses, order history, fitting or style records, and payment-adjacent data across e-commerce operations.

Following the 2023 acquisition by WHP Global, Bonobos has operated with a reduced footprint. The brand's sale at a steep discount from Walmart's purchase price reflected broader struggles Walmart encountered with its premium direct-to-consumer acquisitions. WHP Global has focused on maintaining the brand's identity while managing its operational footprint.