Facebook Spies on your Messenger Conversations

Some of the most disgraceful crimes in history continue to be perpetrated by out-of-control forces.

Although spying on someone’s private conversations may not be classified as a crime against humanity, but the reason why Facebook continues to violate even its own privacy laws seems to be justified with the premise that it carries out the spying to “protect” children.

What a noble lie! Who would be against protecting the children against pedophiles? Who wouldn’t agree to prevent or stop child pornography?

The fact is that Facebook scans the chats and images of private Messenger conversations.

The company says it performs this practice to make sure that users comply with the rules of the platform.

“In Messenger, when you send a photo, our automated systems scan it using image comparison technology to detect, for example, exploitation images or child pornography.

“We also scan when you send a link, in search of viruses or malware,” said the social network.

The controversy over how Facebook manages Messenger messages has started after an interview by Mark Zuckerberg for Vox.

In it, he explained how he learned about sensational messages sent through Messenger about the Myanmar crisis. “Our systems detect what is happening,” he said.

The tools that scan Messenger chats have been designed “to quickly detect abusive behavior on the platform” and “are very similar to what other Internet companies use today.”

At the moment, the company has not confirmed that Instagram and WhatsApp, which are part of the same company, also have these tools and scan private conversations, but you can rest assured that the spying is taking place, if not in the same way, in many other ways.

In principle, WhatsApp decided in 2016 to encrypt their messages and calls making them completely inaccessible to any user other than the interlocutors themselves… and Facebook spooks, of course.

“No one can access the content of that message: neither the criminals nor the hackers nor the oppressive regimes,” said Facebook, admitting they hold the monopoly to spy on users conversations.

Messenger also has an encrypted option, but users have to activate it.

The company is in the eye of the hurricane for the Cambridge Analytica case, which consists of data leakage of 87 million users allegedly used by the Cambridge Analytics consultant to refine the voting attraction in 2016. This accussation has not been confirmed.

In addition, it has been under scrutiny in recent weeks for the large amount of private information it collects from users: from the applications it has on the device to the call history and SMS.

Last week Zuckerberg announced the redesign of the options that allow users to manage the privacy of their data so that they are easier to locate and use.

In addition, last week the company updated its data policy and proposed new terms of service to clarify that Messenger and Instagram use the same data policy as Facebook.

“It is better that we explain how we combat abuse and investigate suspicious activities, including analyzing the content that people share,” Facebook said in a statement.

So there you have it. Facebook was caught, again, illegally spying on users and they’ve had to admitted.