The social network is screening all private conversations, looking for potential criminals. A practice whose legality remains unproven.
Facebook uses software that eavesdrops on private conversations of its 900 million users, to track down potential criminals and report them to police, reports Reuters . The process is illustrated by a variety of American made.
March 9, a man of thirty years was arrested in Florida (USA) after being denounced by Facebook who had caught to go to a 13 year old girl. What to highlight the fact that the social network automatically scans private conversations, chat or message.
According to Reuters, this technology sifts through the discussions in order to track potential criminals seeking including certain keywords, based on previous discussions of convicted pedophiles. The age difference between the two interlocutors, the frequency of their conversations and their relationship of “friendship” are also criteria. In case of alarm, the conversation is reported to teams of Facebook, who contact the authorities.
Asked by “Le Nouvel Observateur,” a spokesman said social network:
This specific tool is the rare cases of adults who try to use websites in order to attract children.Cases involving [sexual predators] are very rare, but our approach is robust and aggressive to keep Facebook users safe. “
This “scan” conversations but does not that pedophilia but “all criminal activities”.Can be reported “all activities that go against the terms of use”. In these conditions , the social network announced that it may “be required to share information [...] to prevent fraud or other unlawful activity, to prevent imminent physical harm or protect our interests. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entity. “
In short, Facebook reserves the right to report to authorities any activity deemed “illegal”, based on private conversations.
“Significant internal controls”
A system that raises many questions regarding respect for privacy. Two members of Congress, Ed Markey and Joe Barton, have claimed particular to Facebook more information on how information is collected.
Without giving many details, the social network is reassuring and explained that the mere use of certain keywords or joking between users is not enough to trigger an alarm. ”We never wanted to create an environment where our employees watch private communications, therefore it is very important to use this technology [detection] which has a very low rate of false positives [false alarms, Ed ] “said Joe Sullivan, head of security at Facebook, told Reuters. The social network adds: “Significant internal controls regulate the use of these tools to prevent abuse.”
Illegal in France?
However, under French law, Facebook appears to violate Article L241-1 of the Code of Homeland Security:
“The interception of a private message, even by a robot, may be sufficient to characterize a violation of secrecy of correspondence, “said Ms Sabine Lipovetsky, a lawyer specializing in new technologies,” Nouvel Observateur “. Access to private emails can be justified only if the authorities have requested or authorized, according to the lawyer with Kahn & Associates. This pattern is not impossible with Facebook but was negotiated with all countries where the social network is available and that has not been made public. Otherwise, Facebook can not access private e-mails with impunity and could be prosecuted.
The debate on access to e-mail is not just Facebook. In 2010, an American surfer filed a complaint against Google, which analyzes the content of e-mails exchanged via Gmail to offer targeted advertising.
