Facebook sued over private message 'scanning'

[Jazzy]

Facebook is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it monitors users' private messages.

The lawsuit claims that when users share a link to another website via a private message, Facebook scans it to profile the sender's web activity.

It alleges that Facebook systematically intercepts messages to mine user data and profits by sharing it with data aggregators, advertisers and marketers.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this week, cites independent research that, it claims, found Facebook reviews the contents of its users' private messages "for purposes unrelated to the facilitation of message transmission".

"Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is "private" creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook," it says.

It says this is "because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored.

"Thus, Facebook has positioned itself to acquire pieces of the users' profiles that are likely unavailable to other data aggregators."

Full article

If you use Facebook, how do you feel about this?

 

[Kirito]

Not surprised tbh. I don't care, no personal info of me is on there. If they wanna read through boring school assignment crap then they can do so.

 

[Bluezone777]

A personal messaging system whether it be on a forum or on Facebook is only as private as the people in charge want it to be. Facebook apparently cares very little about your privacy and rather look at your messages so they can make a buck off of you which would beg the question of why you spend time on and give so much of yourself to a website run by such people. The thing about forums I like is it makes the people in charge and the people they are in charge of close so there is some idea of whether you can truly trust the PM system on any given forum. Here I can tell that privacy is valued and no PMs would be looked at except those flagged as abusive or flagrant advertisements.

This is precisely the sort of thing that confirms my suspicion that Facebook was no place to be apart of and why I don't use it.