Facebook Scans the Photos and Links You Send on Messenger - Blocks or Removes Some
Facebook Scans the Photos and Links You Send on Messenger
System aims to detect content that violates standards
Company on the defensive about how it handles private
data
By Sarah Frier April 4, 2018, 7:59 AM PDT Updated on
April 4, 2018, 11:06 AM PDT
Facebook Inc. scans the links and images that people send
each other on Facebook Messenger, and reads chats when they’re flagged to
moderators, making sure the content abides by the company’s rules. If it
doesn’t, it gets blocked or taken down.
The company confirmed the practice after an interview
published earlier this week with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg raised
questions about Messenger’s practices and privacy. Zuckerberg told Vox’s Ezra Klein
a story about receiving a phone call related to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
Facebook had detected people trying to send sensational messages through the
Messenger app, he said.
“In that case, our systems detect what’s going on,”
Zuckerberg said. “We stop those messages from going through.”
Some people reacted with concern on Twitter: Was Facebook
reading messages more generally? Facebook has been under scrutiny in recent
weeks over how it handles users’ private data and the revelation struck a nerve.
Messenger doesn’t use the data from the scanned messages for advertising, the
company said, but the policy may extend beyond what Messenger users expect.
The company told Bloomberg that while Messenger
conversations are private, 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." People can
report posts or messages for violating those standards, which would prompt a
review by the company’s “community operations” team. Automated tools can also
do the work.
“For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our
automated systems scan it using photo matching technology to detect known child
exploitation imagery or when you send a link, we scan it for malware or
viruses,” a Facebook Messenger spokeswoman said in a statement. “Facebook
designed these automated tools so we can rapidly stop abusive behavior on our
platform.”
Messenger used to be part of Facebook’s main service,
before it was spun off into a separate application in 2014. Facebook’s other
major chat app, WhatsApp, encrypts both ends of its users’ communications, so
that not even WhatsApp can see it -- a fact that’s made it more secure for
users, and more difficult for lawmakers wanting information in investigations.
Messenger also has an encrypted option, but users have to turn it on.
The company updated its data policy and proposed new
terms of service on Wednesday to clarify that Messenger and Instagram use the
same rules as Facebook. “We better explain how we combat abuse and investigate
suspicious activity, including by analyzing the content people share,” Facebook
said in a blog post.
Facebook is on the defensive after revelations that
private information from about 50 million users wound up in the hands of
political ad-data firm Cambridge Analytica without their consent. Zuckerberg
has agreed to testify before the House next week and is holding a conference
call on Wednesday afternoon to discuss changes to Facebook privacy policies.
The company is working to make its privacy policies
clearer, but still ends up with gaps between what it says users have agreed to,
and what users think they actually agreed to.
The Messenger scanning systems “are very similar to those
that other internet companies use today,” the company said.
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