Duolingo data breach

Breach date: 2023-01-24. Added to this index: 2023-08-23. Accounts affected: about 2.7M. Domain: duolingo.com.

What happened

In August 2023, 2.6M records of data scraped from Duolingo were broadly distributed on a popular hacking forum. Obtained by enumerating a vulnerable API, the data had earlier appeared for sale in January 2023 and contained email addresses, names, the languages being learned, XP (experience points), and other data related to learning progress on Duolingo. Whilst some of the data attributes are intentionally public, the ability to map private email addresses to them presents an ongoing risk to user privacy.

Breach data sourced from Have I Been Pwned, used under CC BY 4.0. Additional breach metadata provided by XposedOrNot. DataExposed is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.

What was exposed

  • Email addresses: The email address you used to register or log in. It is the most common field in breaches because it doubles as your username on most sites.
  • Names: Your first name, surname and sometimes middle name or initials, as you gave them when you signed up. It appears in almost every breach because nearly every account asks for it.
  • Spoken languages: The languages listed on your profile or account settings, collected by dating apps, job sites, travel services and customer support systems.
  • Usernames: The handle or login name you chose for an account, which may be public on forums, games and social platforms or used privately to sign in.

What to do now

  1. Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
  2. Review the accounts connected to this service and turn on two-factor authentication.
  3. Turn on two-factor authentication on your email account first, because it is the reset path for everything else.
  4. Treat calls and messages that quote real details about you as hostile until you verify them another way.

Frequently asked questions

What data was leaked in the Duolingo breach?

The Duolingo breach exposed Email addresses, Names, Spoken languages, Usernames. About 2.7M accounts were affected.

Was I affected by the Duolingo breach?

Run the free email breach check with the address you used on that service. It will tell you whether your address appears in this dataset.

What should I do about the Duolingo breach?

Treat any message that quotes details from this breach as suspicious, turn on two-factor authentication, and consider removing your details from people-search sites if your address or phone was included.

Next steps