Facebook sued for allegedly intercepting private messages

When will people understand that Facebook does not care, and will use any and every last bit of information regardless of consent? Look how many times they gave and took away privacy settings. The company does not want users to have any option of holding back. And if they are being sued for this, honestly Google should be as well. It's basically the same thing Google does with Gmail.

 

Facebook said the allegations were "without merit"

 

Of course, and their army of lawyers will most likely get some judge to buy it or toss it out with a shrug.

 

I learned in the past few years that whatever is done on facebook whether private messages or private posts it is just an illusion and nothing is private. Your data is sold to the highest bidder. Consequently I try to avoid private conversations and whatever I post I realize that my employer could see as well and think twice before doing so.

 

Note how Facebook says that the allegations are "without merit", not untrue

But leaving jokes aside, private messages are "private" because no other users can see them, not because Facebook cannot see them... I think people should understand this and act accordingly.

 

Here's another point of view from Graham Cluley, who used to work for Sophos:

http://grahamcluley.com/2014/01/facebook-scan-private-messages/

 

I get his point and do agree slightly with him. The big problem with that though is I don't think anyone really believes that security is the prime objective of this scanning. It also opens a door for every company to do this, all in the name of security..where have we heard that one before?

 

Probably, the security IS the prime objective of this scanning, but it doesn't matter, because Facebook has some credibility issues. And because of that even if they would act in good faith all the time, a great number of people wouldn't believe them (and looking at Facebook's history of problems, this is perfectly understandable).

From my point of view, I'd rather not have Facebook scan the messages I receive, because I can decide for myself which one is spam or which one has a malicious URL in it. Putting it more simple, Facebook is a social network, not a security tool. But unfortunately, most people want to be protected by Facebook instead of making the decisions themselves, and that will always lead to message scanning and other privacy intrusive methods.

 

Some have been messaging less since this story broke due to privacy concerns.

 

A poll put out by nakedsecurity.sophos asked: How trustworthy is Facebook overall?
73% (2,359 votes) came back as not at all trustworthy while 1% (15 votes) said
extremely trustworthy. (note: ongoing poll)
The article goes on to say Facebook declined to share the results of its own polling, but
said we are constantly working to improve our service, and getting regular feedback from the
people who use it is an invaluable part of the process.


http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/01/03/the-exact-number-of-people-who-trust-facebook-is-poll/


If one doesn't trust Facebook, where does that leave ones privacy and security when using
Facebook?

 

It doesn't leave it anywhere as there is no privacy and data security on Facebook.

 

Just a troll thinking he might get some money. Nice!