Facebook has changed its policy to prevent developers from using data to facilitate surveillance of users.
The move comes several months after an investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union of California (ACLU) discovered that developer Geofeedia used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram data to help law enforcement in the US monitor the activity of citizens during protests. After the investigation was published, all three social networks cut ties with Geofeedia, and now Facebook has made it clear it will no longer facilitate this kind of intrusion.
In a statement, deputy chief privacy officer Rob Sherman said Facebook and Instagram policy terms would change to ensure developers cannot “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance”. The statement continues: “Our goal is to make our policy explicit. Over the past several months we have taken enforcement action against developers who created and marketed tools meant for surveillance, in violation of our existing policies; we want to be sure everyone understands the underlying policy and how to comply.” Facebook goes on to specifically thanks the ACLU and other “community leaders” for collaborating with it on the update.
The ACLU used public information requests to uncover the depths of the ongoing monitoring. At the time of the investigation it said it had uncovered rapidly-expanding social media surveillance "with little-to-no debate or oversight”.
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“As we continued to comb through thousands of pages of documents, we saw emails from Geofeedia representatives telling law enforcement about its special access to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram user data.
“In one message, a Geofeedia representative tells police that the company has arrangements with Twitter and Instagram for user data. Right after that, the representative promotes a product feature that ‘covered Ferguson/Mike Brown nationally with great success.’”
After further digging, the ACLU found Facebook and Instagram provided API access based on topic type, while Twitter provided Geofeedia with a searchable database of public tweets. Geofeedia could easily achieve this under the banner of its developer status. However, the purpose of this kind of access tends to be for commercial uses - not for providing a service to law enforcement that could potentially breach a user’s right to protest freely. Geofeedia had 500 law enforcement and public safety clients, the ACLU reported.
Furthermore, the union suggested the tool was being used to “disproportionately impact communities of colour”. Law enforcement “could easily target neighborhoods where people of colour live, monitor hashtags used by activists and allies, or target activist groups as ‘overt threats’”. The ACLU called out social networks for their blatant hypocrisy - or as it worded it, "disconnect" - when it comes to free speech; promoting it and showing solidarity for movements like Black Lives Matter (in the case of Zuckerberg), but at the same time potentially facilitating a repression of that freedom by allowing Geofeedia to pass information on perfectly legal activism and protesting directly to police. At the time, the ACLU specifically raised concerns about the lack of “robust or properly enforced anti-surveillance policies”.
Facebook has now stepped up to implement the changes the ACLU demanded, with Sherman saying “we are committed to building a community where people can feel safe making their voices heard”.
Social media was at one time blamed for helping ignite violent protests here in the UK. After the London riots in 2011, the Riots Communities and Victims Panel published a report claiming the violence was “made worse” because of 24-hour news and social media, with Twitter and Blackberry Messenger called out for helping looters organise.
Fast-forward two years, and by the summer of 2013 it was revealed that the Met had setup a unit specifically tasked with used social media to monitor 9,000 political campaigners, known as “domestic extremists”. That unit would scrape Facebook profiles and tweets - all of which is work law enforcement around the world continues to do today. The likes of Geofeedia, however, are commercially benefitting from delivering tailored, targeted and potentially prejudiced data straight to police, and they are doing so as a private company with none of the obligations to use the checks and balances law enforcement is expected to employ.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
