Facebook data privacy conundrum has hit a new low on Wednesday, after it was found tracking user chats and photos on its Messenger app. This development has surfaced after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg inadvertently confessed to the wrongdoing in his interview with Vox earlier this week.
So, this essentially means that Facebook has managed to scan all through your chat history, including photos shared via Messenger, without even letting you know about it.
According to the social networking giant, they’re doing this to moderate the kind of messages that are communicated through its chat platform.
The other big concern about this matter is that Messenger also caters to voice, as well as the recently introduced video calling feature. Does that mean Facebook has been able to track into those as well? If so, then it’s scary from all corners.
The revelation was confirmed when Zuckerberg, in his interview with Ezra Klein of Vox, narrated a story about receiving messages related to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
I remember, one Saturday morning, I got a phone call, and we detected that people were trying to spread sensational messages through — it was Facebook Messenger in this case — to each side of the conflict, basically telling the Muslims, ‘Hey, there’s about to be an uprising of the Buddhists, so make sure that you are armed and go to this place.’ And then the same thing on the other side.Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook to Vox
Justifying the means to track this information before spreading, Zuckerberg admitted that chats on Messenger were being monitored by Facebook’s system.
Now, in that case, our systems detect what’s going on. We stop those messages from going through. But this is certainly something that we’re paying a lot of attention to.Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook to Vox
Facebook has received a lot of bad press over the past few weeks, and this latest breach of user privacy just adds to its woes. In its defense, Facebook claimed that Messenger isn’t monitored for advertising purposes, but that’s definitely not enough to soothe the wounds of the user.
In statement to Bloomberg, it also claims that machine-controlled monitoring of content is essential to prevent communal violence spreading through its medium.
Facebook scans them and uses the same tools to prevent abuse there that it does on the social network more generally. All content must abide by the same ‘community standards.’Facebook spokesperson to Bloomberg
Well, after what Facebook has admitted to be part of recently, it’s hard for anyone to believe anything it says, unless it takes some drastic measures to prevent such data mishaps. If you consider that Facebook has pushed its Kids version of the Messenger in markets like US, revelation about the app only goes to validate people’s fear.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)