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Facebook and Instagram Ban Developers From Using Data For Surveillance (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Facebook and Instagram have banned developers from using their data for surveillance with a new privacy policy that civil rights activists have long sought to curb spying by law enforcement. Following revelations last year that police departments had gained special access to the social networks to track protesters, Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced on Monday that it had updated its rules to state that developers could not "use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance." The American Civil Liberties Union obtained government records last year revealing that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter had provided users' data to a software company that aids police surveillance programs and had helped law enforcement monitor Black Lives Matter demonstrations. The ACLU found that the social networking sites had given "special access" to Geofeedia, a controversial startup that has partnered with law enforcement to track streams of user content. "Our goal is to make our policy explicit," Facebook said in its announcement on Monday. "Over the past several months we have taken enforcement action against developers who created and marketed tools meant for surveillance, in violation of our existing policies; we want to be sure everyone understands the underlying policy and how to comply."
They're going to have to ban their own developers, too. Facebook and Instagram are surveillance platforms for marketing companies.
This 'ban' will not stand up to an NSL..
Oh, a "rule" ??
Well, okay. Sure. That'll work.
/insert Gene Wilder/Wonka meme here
Facebook and Instagram Want Clients To Buy Their Surveillance Data
Dr. King was a victim of spying by the US government as well as efforts to ruin his reputation. Over fifty years later we have the FBI tracking people for supporting Black Lives Matter. Somehow a theme of we don't like black folks being converted into those black folks can not be trusted and must be watched. Maybe we simply must not ever have anything like the FBI in America.
Isn't the entire point of facebook to look at all of the stuff people have posted? How is looking at your stuff on facebook different from surveillance?
Happy 15th birthday!
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
It won't actually accomplish anything but it allows the companies to tell their data sources, aka customers, that the companies are looking out for their interests. A couple of the smaller developers working out of their homes will be shut out to prove that the new rules are working but the larger shops and the government will continue working as usual.