Every AI App Data Breach Since January 2025: 20 Incidents, Same Root Causes
Between January 2025 and February 2026, at least 20 documented security incidents exposed the personal data of tens of millions of users across AI-powered applications. Nearly every single one traces back to the same preventable root causes: misconfigured Firebase databases, missing Supabase Row Level Security, hardcoded API keys, and exposed cloud backends.
This is not a collection of isolated mistakes.
Three independent large-scale research projects, CovertLabs' Firehound scanning 198 iOS apps, Cybernews' audit of 38,630 Android AI apps, and Escape's analysis of 5,600 vibe-coded applications, all converge on the same conclusion: the AI app ecosystem has a systemic, structural security crisis. The rush to ship AI wrappers, chatbots, and "vibe-coded" products has outpaced even the most basic security practices, leaving hundreds of millions of user records readable by anyone with a browser.
What follows is every documented incident, research finding, and industry statistic. Sourced, dated, and cross-referenced.