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Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App (bloomberg.com)
Sarah Frier, reporting for Bloomberg: Facebook scans the text and images that people send each other on Facebook Messenger, making sure it all abides by the company's rules governing content. If it doesn't, it gets blocked. The company confirmed the practice after an interview published earlier this week with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg raised questions about Messenger's practices and privacy. Zuckerberg told Vox's Ezra Klein a story about receiving a phone call related to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. Facebook had detected people trying to send sensational messages through the Messenger app, he said.
"In that case, our systems detect what's going on," Zuckerberg said. "We stop those messages from going through." Some people reacted with concern on Twitter: "Was Facebook reading messages more generally?" Facebook has been under scrutiny in recent weeks over how it handles users' private data and the revelation struck a nerve. Messenger doesn't use the data from the scanned messages for advertising, the company said, but the policy may extend beyond what Messenger users expect.
"In that case, our systems detect what's going on," Zuckerberg said. "We stop those messages from going through." Some people reacted with concern on Twitter: "Was Facebook reading messages more generally?" Facebook has been under scrutiny in recent weeks over how it handles users' private data and the revelation struck a nerve. Messenger doesn't use the data from the scanned messages for advertising, the company said, but the policy may extend beyond what Messenger users expect.
... water is wet. Also the sky is blue! See more at 11!
Why aren't you encrypting your e-mail?
The answer is yes. Every single Messenger message you sent is routed through Zuckerberg's office. He personally scans each one, and hits an "Approve" or "Reject" button. He also has a copy of Notepad open on his desktop, and he pastes more interesting messages into the document for later use.
Source: I work for Google.
(Sorry, I should explain, our Google Analytics software has some cool features we use internally, that's why I know what's on Zuckerberg's desktop.)
(Also, close that porn window, your boss just locked his screen and he's coming over to talk to you. You're welcome.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Is there any way to set up an auto-responder for private-account Fecebook messages? i.e. "This account does not accept Facebook messages. Should you wish to contact me, please call (111)555-1234 or email foo (at) bar (dot) org."
There are several domain names that FB messenger flat out blocks. Some of them are safe sites, but competitors to Facebook. It has been a few months since I've used it though, so I don't remember the example off the top of my head.
I was wondering why Facebook was accessing an unindexed file on my private web server. I figured out that my son sent his friend a link to that file via Facebook.
Everything you do on there, they are watching.
...damned if you don't.
I think this is a wonderful chance to reflect on the scary amount of power those companies wield (no it isn't Facebook only, although we like to jump on it at the moment), and that perhaps this business model is incompatible with some of our (yes, "our" as "most of humankind's"!) core values.
As I know greedy capitalism, we'll miss most of this chance (the show must go on, after all: there are billions at stake and that is somehow IMPORTANT). I hope we just fetch a tiny bit of that chance. That alone would justify the sacrifice of Facebook.
One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them?
Min Aung Hliang, reaver in chief, and butcher extraordinaire, is still holding court on facebook, as far as I know... Also Zuckerberg's story can't be true - a phone call? You can't call anyone at facebook, much less Mark Zuckerberg. You can go to the help center though!
Some people reacted with concern on Twitter: "Was Facebook reading messages more generally?"
How do they think it detects the "bad" messages? Spidey sense?
I'm reminded of conversations with people who think Alexa et al only listen after you say the keyword.
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Google has admitted to doing it since gmail first came out
Donald Trump tweets. We knew that before we signed up for it. Now can we move on to news?
Look, Venn diagram:
Private data: 0
Facebook: 0
Big surprise. More doublespeak.
Messenger conversations are private, Facebook scans them and uses the same tools to prevent abuse there that it does on the social network more generally.
So your messages are private except that they're not. It seems like these companies have a different definition of 'private' than the rest of us.
Chairman Mao, or Stalin?
Trick question! It's both.
About a year ago, Facebook licensed Signal's technology to do direct device to device communication with Messenger, with all messages supposedly encrypted. I am curious if this is watched and copied as well.
Moral of the story: Want secure communication, use something like Signal, and avoid FB like the plague.
I mentioned it to a friend via Messenger a ways back and it blocked the communication and claimed it was malware. Ended up sending my friend an email about it, but lesson learned.
It has been dumbfounding that so many people have chosen these proprietary messaging apps. Before you even hear any stories about how awful they are, the first thing you encounter with any of them, is that they don't interoperate with anything else. That is, if you want to talk to someone who uses that app, you have to use the same app. Simply through this, you know the protocol is undocumented and therefore very likely to be substantially worse than the state-of-the-art 20 years ago.
But people ignore that.
But now we're having some refreshing (and surprising!) moments of honesty. That Microsoft scans Skype looking for dirty words was not only hilarious, but an amazing thing for them to admit. Now we have another one (Facebook, this time) admitting that their app is completely and utterly insecure.
These companies didn't get exposed by security researchers. They didn't get exposed by something embarrassing getting leaked. They didn' get exposed by common sense and people thinking about how they could prove the platforms were secure. They exposed themselves, admitting to the public that their products are worthless. They're telling us, explicitly. What more can you want? If you use these things, it's your problem. Just don't pretend you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The only way this might be bad, is that they're giving people the answers "too easily" so people won't get any smarter and might come to the weird conclusion that if a messaging app isn't secure, the company will own up to it. Well, I totally disagree with that. The people already failed and weren't going to learn anything anyway. So tell them the answer to this quiz, just in the desperate hope that they realize the answer next time. Maybe some day, when people are offered products that apprear to be insecure, they'll treat them as though they realize they're probably insecure. No, not everyone, but a few more percent than last time.
Thank you, Facebook and Microsoft. I say this without irony. I don't know your motives, but your actions are about as close to teaching as anyone could ever expect from you. And you did this teaching to our most disadvantaged students, the ones who most needed it.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Poop in the woods?
The only way to secure your communications from prying eyes is to encrypt it before it hits the tubes. You can't really do that on a phone running third-party software. You can come close to doing it running an open source OS, but you've got to be damned sure you don't have silly things like Intel ME logging your keystrokes away. Your best bet is a dedicated hardware encryption device. If you're paranoid, it'll be one you build yourself.
I tried to send a link to it to a friend and it was blocked, but it was pretty easy to work around. I just told him to google these two words, reversed : purity facebook. It's not a terribly smart filter.
Facebook had detected people trying to send sensational messages through the Messenger app
Aren't you glad tech companies are making sure we won't send sensational messages to each other?
Who didn't already assume this? Btw the one watching mine is like "yep, that's another cat meme"
Facebook scans the text and images that people send each other on Facebook Messenger, making sure it all abides by the company's rules governing content. If it doesn't, it gets blocked.
We'll censor our members' private communications with each other, but we won't censor ourselves when we make your data available to our 'partners'. Everything you do is transparent to us, but everything we do is opaque to you.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Wait, wut?
There are still FB users who don't understand that FB owns everything you post and are snooping on everything you and your friends say?
Shit, I knew that back when I quit FB six years ago.
YES. Yes, you dummy. Duh.
A few days ago, I downloaded Final Draft 10 (leaving the former open-source CeltX ) using windows version of Qbittorrent.
I started receiving on facebook app Final Draft ads on a daily basis.
That means they scanned the 20 or so messages I sent to actual friends requesting email addresses.
Deleting my account in two days after I hear back from people.
It was insightful reviewing my "friends", I only contacted about 20 out of 120 people that I'm "friends' with. I realized I really don't want or need to contact the vast majority of them.
BlameBillCosby.com
Pookin Pighty Pood
in my bum
Every single thing you do and are(!) is already in their their machine. And in light of what you should know, or at least suspect, they do it with your full consent. You didn't say *NO*. So quit yer whining!
If they feel it violates there content rules that can block it; however, if tehy fail to block some that do so and something bad happens, they have no liability.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
We often read articles that scream in moral outrage about the great firewall of China and how the Chinese govt. monitors and filters everything that people do online. How is this any different in principle if all the US big tech companies do it?
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
I stopped using it about 2006-2007. It was *already* too intrusive and the company founder had stated we had no right to privacy and the company had repeatedly secretly changed privacy settings to be more liberal and been caught.
It's not getting any better. Facebook is a danger to your financial safety.
and boy... so many mutual friends have ended their friendship due to facebook over the last decade. it's as bad as playing "Diplomacy" the board game (which is really nasty about ending friendships too).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
To stop Facebook doing this (tl;dr version-) stop using Facebook. Tell everyone on Facebook you actually care about being able to reach you how to reach you besides using Facebook, deactivate your account, delete the apps from all your devices, and remove the password or login information from whatever system you use to store them, so you won't be tempted to login and reactivate it. That's about the only way to do it AFAIK.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
2015 they blocked a link that I sent in a private message. It was just to a website with erotic stories. I reported this as a bug, but they did not respond.
They used to censor all pornhub links on messenger. I see no reason why I can't send links with legal material in messages to my friends. Google might read your emails, but they at least don't remove things they find naughty.
Has everyone forgotten the beginning of the year? Facebook was criticized because violent mobs organized themselves using Facebook messenger. With the recent push to hold the content provider responsible for content that incites a crime (mostly prostitution), one can be damn sure that Facebook and friends are running everything through a morality filter. Speaking of which, only American Christianity through its 'Morality in Media' mouthpiece, could get away with equating talking about sex (via Cosmopolitan magazine) to rape. Listen-up prudes, if you're old enough to take your pants off in front of another person, you're old enough to talk about it. For males, it's sorta mandatory because the alternative is imprisonment for rape.
"Ezra Klein a story about receiving a phone call related to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. Facebook had detected people trying to send sensational messages through the Messenger app, he said."
Hmm... "sensational messages" = the truth about the muslim scum in Myanmar. "ethnic cleansing" my ass.