Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Facebook accused of secretly saving deleted Messenger data and sharing it with police

Facebook accused of secretly saving deleted Messenger data and sharing it with police

In response to the legal filing, Facebook's parent company Meta said the "claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves against them vigorously".

Meta has been accused of secretly keeping users' deleted Messenger data and sharing it with police by a former employee.

Brennan Lawson, who worked for the social media company after leaving the US Air Force, has filed a legal complaint alleging that Facebook created a tool to access Messenger data that users thought they had deleted.

Lawson, who is suing the company for whistleblower retaliation, alleges he was fired after raising concerns about the tool's legality.

In a filing made to the Superior Court of California in the County of San Mateo, Lawson said he worked for Meta, Facebook's parent company, as a senior risk and response escalations specialist.

"The role required he view extreme content such as beheadings, child rape, and other ruthless and brutal displays of violence or obscenity," the filing states.

Lawson alleges that Meta, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, did not properly protect his mental health, which was affected by his exposure to this content. He is seeking $3m in compensation alongside punitive damages.

'Fired for whistleblowing'


Lawson claims to have attended a meeting in late 2018 "where a Facebook manager introduced a new tool to the escalations team".

The filing claims: "Unlike other meetings, there were no materials distributed beforehand for attendees to review.

"This is because, unlike other meetings, Facebook was teaching employees how to utilise a tool that allowed them to circumvent Facebook's normal privacy protocols in order to access user-deleted data.

"This back-end protocol allowed [Lawson's] team to retrieve data in Messenger that users had chosen to delete. Facebook represented to its users that once data was deleted, it was not stored locally and could not be accessed. Not so."

This tool was used by Facebook to ingratiate itself with law enforcement, according to Lawson's claims.

"Law enforcement would ask questions about the suspect's use of the platform, such as who the suspect was messaging, when messages were sent, and even what those messages contained," the legal filing states.

"To keep Facebook in the good graces of the government, the Escalations Team would utilise the back-end protocol to provide answers for the law enforcement agency and then determine how much to share."

Lawson claims to have spoken up during the meeting because he knew it was contrary to Meta's commitments to US regulators about user privacy, and unlawful under data protection regulations in the EU and UK.

He said he subsequently received a critical rating in his performance review and then lost his job - officially for improperly using Facebook's administrator tools to check on his grandmother's account, which she claimed was hacked - as a pretext to firing him because of his whistleblowing.

Meta told Sky News: "These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves against them vigorously."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×