Facebook’s new data policy:-
The social media giant Facebook has banned developers from using data obtained from them for user’s surveillance.An investigation done by ACLU:-
The American Civil Liberties Union of California (ACLU) has observed that the developer Geofeediais providing user activities to the US law enforcement agencies. He gathered the data from different social media platforms like:Publication of report:-
When the investigation report published, all three social media sites have stopped facilitating the developer. Instagram and Facebook have made it clear that they will not help him in the future.Deputy Chief Privacy Officer’s Statement:-
The deputy chief privacy Officer Rob Sherman said that both social media giants (Instagram and Facebook) have ensured that they would not provide user data information to any of the developers. We are making a strict privacy policy. In the last few months, we have taken action against the involved developers who violated our rules.Acknowledgement:-
Facebook acknowledged the services of ACLU and other unions for their contribution to overcoming the user privacy issue.The ACLU efforts:-
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) takes action on public’s request. The union has praised the policy reform by saying that written policies must be backed up by rigorous oversight and swift action for violations.Getting emails from Geofeedia:-
Nicole Ozer, technology, and civil liberties director at the ACLU of California said that they are getting emails from the developer agents that are about getting access to the social media sites. One email is about meetings with Instagram and Twitter about the user privacy issue. The agent shows a product to the police that covered Mike Brown /Ferguson.Further investigation:-
Further investigation shows that Instagram and Facebook have given the API access to the developer and the Twitter authorities have provided the public tweets. The developer used the information for negative purposes rather than helping the law enforcement agencies.Number of developer’s clients:-
The developer has 500 law enforcement and public safety clients.Who were the victims?
The ACLU investigated that the developer takes the information of south Asian, Muslim and Sikh protesters.Police targets the protestors:-
It is very common for the police to target the protesters using the social media sites. Last week, we have seen people have been targeted through Facebook pages in case of Dakota Pipeline protest.Changes made by Facebook:-
Facebook has made changes as suggested by the ACLU. The Facebook's deputy chief privacy office said that they are committed to making their social media site safe and secure.London riots 2011:-
The victim's Panel and Riots Communities published a report after the London riots in 2011. The report says that the protestors use Blackberry Messenger and Twitter for calling people.Met setup:-
At the end of summer 2013, Met had developed a setup to monitor about 9,000 people. That unit carefully examined the Facebook posts and tweets of the people.Geofeedia response:-
Geofeedia CEO Phil Harris said that the company is committed to the principles of user privacy and has strict policies and guidelines against wrong use of user data