Meta Sues Surveillance Company for Scraping Data With Fake Facebook Accounts (theverge.com) 14
Meta has filed a legal complaint against a company for allegedly creating tens of thousands of fake Facebook accounts to scrape user data and provide surveillance services for clients. From a report: The firm, Voyager Labs, bills itself as "a world leader in advanced AI-based investigation solutions." What this means in practice is analyzing social media posts en masse in order to make claims about individuals. In 2021, for example, The Guardian reported how Voyager Labs sold its services to the Los Angeles Police Department, with the company claiming to predict which individuals were likely to commit crimes in the future.
Meta announced the legal action in a blog post on January 12th, claiming that Voyager Labs violated its terms of service. According to a legal filing issued on November 11th, Meta alleges that Voyager Labs created over 38,000 fake Facebook user accounts and used its surveillance software to gather data from Facebook and Instagram without authorization. Voyager Labs also collected data from sites including Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram.
Meta announced the legal action in a blog post on January 12th, claiming that Voyager Labs violated its terms of service. According to a legal filing issued on November 11th, Meta alleges that Voyager Labs created over 38,000 fake Facebook user accounts and used its surveillance software to gather data from Facebook and Instagram without authorization. Voyager Labs also collected data from sites including Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram.
What? That's an outrage! (Score:3, Funny)
They wanted to get our user's data without paying us!
Re:What? That's an outrage! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
FB got a pretty savage rap over the knuckles from the govt over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and it was made pretty clear that THAT sort of surveilance is only for Five Eyes. Basically the revenue off selling *that* sort of data isn't enough to offset the reputational damage, well unless you turn up with a warrant in which case they'll give you the lot. But thats a different story for a different time.
The point is, FB doesnt really "sell" user data per se. They use it to tune their giant terrifying ad m
Re: (Score:1)
Meta Executive: “Are you telling me this company Voyager Labs is extracting behavioral patterns from our user accounts and selling the results? Sue them immediatelythat’s our job damn it.”
is the pot calling the kettle black? (Score:2)
this is rich, meta suing for scraping. how did Facebook get their launch data?
Let's call it what it really is... (Score:2)
Meta Sues Privacy Rapist for Scraping Data....
There FTFY.
(and oh! The irony of a privacy rapist (Meta) suing another privacy rapist!)
It's been used for many years by law enforcement. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: It's been used for many years by law enforceme (Score:2)
Re: It's been used for many years by law enforceme (Score:3)
I want us all using privacy respecting tools. I know for a fact they will not help the large number of stupid criminals.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's not a "privacy issue" when people post things fully publicly on a social media site. That's called "a complete failure to maintain one's own operational secrecy".
It only becomes a "privacy issue" when some LEO engaging in an investigation makes phony friend account and gets access to someone's entire historical feed of posts, but when it's that kind of "privacy issue" it is still a pretty serious failure of common sense--people just should not post evidence of their crimes online.
Re: (Score:2)
Somebody in corporate (Score:1)
Meta hates competition (Score:2)