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Facebook Sued for Scanning Private User Messages

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @10:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-big-shock dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A California man is suing Facebook for allegedly scanning the content of private messages sent between users of the site.

The suit alleges that Facebook scans the messages in search of hyperlinks sent between users. "If there is a link to a web page contained in that message, Facebook treats it as a 'like' of the page, and increases the page's 'like,' counter by one," the suit contends. The site tracks when users "like" pages in order to compile individual profiles that allow third parties to send targeted advertisements.

Source: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/facebook-sued-for-scanning-private-user-messages/article/2591806

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @01:42PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday May 24 2016, @01:42PM (#350291)

    Unless the site is getting a list of name and personal information of the list of people that "fake liked" the link, I don't see how this is a violation of privacy or impersonation. I guess that there are so many more scummy things that facebook does, this seems kind of minor.

    Anyhow, you are right unless you are encrypting end to end, there is no such thing as "private messages".

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @09:41PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday May 25 2016, @09:41PM (#350981) Journal

    Unless the site is getting a list of name and personal information of the list of people that "fake liked" the link, I don't see how this is a violation of privacy or impersonation. I guess that there are so many more scummy things that facebook does, this seems kind of minor.

    I don't think the page owner has access to that (although who knows -- they're constantly changing pages and groups and interests and all that, and some membership lists are public while others aren't)...but actually, it's *worse* than that -- all of your friends have access to everything you like. And therefore they have access to everything you send in a message. So if you use Facebook messenger to IM your wife...well, all your old highschool friends now know about that condition you were researching after visiting your doctor. Or some closeted homosexual kid in highschool sends a link to a trusted friend, and Facebook outs them to the whole school. So yeah, that could be far worse than some company trying to figure out what ads to show you...