ClearVoice Surveys, an online market research platform holding personal data on millions of survey panelists, suffered a breach when a 2015 database backup was taken and redistributed on a public hacking forum in April 2021. The exposure was the result of a misconfiguration that left the backup accessible. The company confirmed the breach and acknowledged the data was authentic. The leaked dataset contained more than 17 million rows of records, including approximately 15 million unique email addresses. The exposed data included names, email addresses, dates of birth, genders, phone numbers, physical addresses, IP addresses, and passwords stored in plain text. Plain text passwords are particularly dangerous because they can be used directly to access other accounts where people reuse the same credentials. The demographic depth of the records, combined with the nature of the platform, means the data could also reveal sensitive personal characteristics depending on which survey topics individuals had participated in, including health, financial, or political subjects. No settlement or regulatory enforcement action specific to this breach has been prominently documented. The six-year gap between the original data collection and its public exposure is a common pattern with stolen backup files, which often circulate privately before broader publication. Affected individuals face ongoing risks of phishing, credential stuffing, identity fraud, and targeted profiling based on the personal details exposed.

Survey and market-research platforms collect respondent identity, contact details, survey responses, panel participation history, and incentive or payment records across research workflows.

ClearVoice Surveys continues to operate as a survey panel and market research platform. No major organizational changes have been publicly reported in the period surrounding or following the breach.