Facebook Scans Chats and Posts For Criminal Activity

An anonymous reader writes "Facebook has added sleuthing to its array of data-mining capabilities, scanning your posts and chats for criminal activity. If the social-networking giant detects suspicious behavior, it flags the content and determines if further steps, such as informing the police, are required. Reuters provides an example of how the software was used in March: 'A man in his early 30s was chatting about sex with a 13-year-old South Florida girl and planned to meet her after middle-school classes the next day. Facebook's extensive but little-discussed technology for scanning postings and chats for criminal activity automatically flagged the conversation for employees, who read it and quickly called police. Officers took control of the teenager's computer and arrested the man the next day.'"

Comments

Re:Facebook is a public place

[Theophany]

If you really are dumb enough to groom a child over a fucking chat application, you deserve the prison rape coming your way. Ever seen 'To Catch a Predator'?

I know the libertards will jump on me for this, but there is a burden of care on the hosts of chat servers given their patchy history as hotbeds for paedophiles, terrorists and all manner of unsavoury communications. Arguing otherwise is just the inane ramblings of somebody subscribing to the ridiculous extents of an ideology, rather than it's well-reasoned core

And before anybody goes there, it's fuck all like wire tapping. For starters, it isn't the 1960s.

Thought Crime

[Anonymous Coward]

Why was he arrested for planning to have sex with her? Is that now illegal?

Fuck this country. All of you in support of the "sex offender registry" are not true US patriots. In this country, you don't get a sex offender registry. We're supposed to value our freedoms. But clearly, considering this will be modded troll, etc., you don't care about your rights in this country.

Ignore this if you're not from the US.

Re:Facebook is a public place

[Nyder]

Why is it so weird that they're doing this? If you went into a bar and talked to folks about having sex with the underage, and someone overheard you, there's a chance that you'd get your ass handed to you, as well as have the cops called to take you away. What's different about facebook doing it? And who the hell relinquishes such personal, and incriminating information on a public server? I know it's not a public server, but it works just like a public bar that's privately owned.

Damn, you are stupid, no wonder you posted as an anonymous coward.

You are in a bar, and talking about the underage girl you bang, guess what? Nothing is going to happen. Why? Because you are in a bar, you are probably drunk and others are drunk around you. You hear a lot of claims in a bar and guess what? Most of them are bullshit.

I used to fuck underage girls when I was over 18, you going to get me arrested? Good luck with that.

It's my personal opinion that facebook is going too far. Not only do they mine data about you to sell for money, they now are going to be monitor what you say?

Where does it stop?

Think of the children.

Think of the terrorist.

Fuck that, fuck facebook.

Re:Facebook is a public place

[ClioCJS]

1. Yes. I replied to his ridiculous assertion that this situation is like his forum's situation, taking the logic he used and applying it to cellphones. How do I refute someone bringing in a different situation without talking about that different situation again?

2. Exactly. And why is that? Because it's wrong.