December 26, 2014 at 12:00Facebook: privacy of correspondence or preventive justice?
In the USA, Facebook is being tried for violating the secrecy of correspondence and invading privacy due to message scanning. At the same time, the British public accuses the social network of not helping the police prevent the killing of a soldier: the plans for this “action” were discussed on Facebook.
The California District Court reports that the case of scanning messages by the social network Facebook will continue. Although the company tried to close the case, it turned out to dismiss only a couple of charges.
There are currently three plaintiffs claiming Facebook has violated various state and federal laws in the United States. The essence of the violation is scanning user messages for more precise advertising targeting. Also, users are not satisfied that the mention of companies in messages automatically turned into a “like” in the corresponding page. According to the plaintiffs , the messaging service "was designed to allow users to privately communicate with other users," so working with their contents violates privacy laws and privacy laws.
In turn, Facebook denied the allegation, saying that it was necessary to scan messages in order to control their delivery. Therefore, a social network cannot illegally intercept them. When this position became useless, the company's lawyers began to say that scanning was a common business practice that could not be covered by the above laws. In any case, Facebook stopped it in 2012, so the case must be stopped, the defense thought.
The court went an unusual, ancient way: read the rules of Facebook. And he decided: “the document does not establish that users agree to scan their messages for advertising purposes. There is no mention of the term message. ” Based on this, the user expects that his correspondence remains closed.
Facebook has an argument: scanning is a standard, common component of messaging operations. After all, email services do not intercept messages while they are on their server - these messages should be there, otherwise nothing will work. After this argument, the court ruled that the company did not provide enough information about the operation of its messaging service in order to call the practice “normal”.
The state has power because we allow it to do so. We give part of our freedom and rights in order to receive social protection, protection from external aggressors, and the possibility of a comfortable life. But with the advent of the Internet, we have less and less “personal” information: the contacts of many can be easily found in the profile on Giktayms, you can find the address and name of a person by the number of his car. Our telephone calls can be tapped .
Few people want his personal life to be invaded in any way. And at the same time, many use social networks and look for answers to questions on the Internet, forgetting that we are already under total surveillance in order to earn more money. Facebook even saves draft posts .
In late November, there was a stir in the British media around the crime committed in the spring of 2013: a soldier of the British army, Lee Rigby, was killed in protest against the killing of Muslims by the British army. At the same time, the criminals left many traces, and, if Facebook had passed the information to the intelligence at the right time, the murder would not have taken place.
We are talking about preventive justice: the concept by which activities are carried out to prevent the commission of illegal activities by bona fide entities . The notary of the Latin type serves similar purposes. An interesting fact from Wikipedia: in the United States, where there is no Latin notary, the cost of legal proceedings in 1996 amounted to 2% of GDP, and in Western Europe, where there is such a notary, expenses are five times less - 0.4% of GDP.
So the question is: are you ready to agree to scan your correspondence?
The California District Court reports that the case of scanning messages by the social network Facebook will continue. Although the company tried to close the case, it turned out to dismiss only a couple of charges.
There are currently three plaintiffs claiming Facebook has violated various state and federal laws in the United States. The essence of the violation is scanning user messages for more precise advertising targeting. Also, users are not satisfied that the mention of companies in messages automatically turned into a “like” in the corresponding page. According to the plaintiffs , the messaging service "was designed to allow users to privately communicate with other users," so working with their contents violates privacy laws and privacy laws.
In turn, Facebook denied the allegation, saying that it was necessary to scan messages in order to control their delivery. Therefore, a social network cannot illegally intercept them. When this position became useless, the company's lawyers began to say that scanning was a common business practice that could not be covered by the above laws. In any case, Facebook stopped it in 2012, so the case must be stopped, the defense thought.
The court went an unusual, ancient way: read the rules of Facebook. And he decided: “the document does not establish that users agree to scan their messages for advertising purposes. There is no mention of the term message. ” Based on this, the user expects that his correspondence remains closed.
Facebook has an argument: scanning is a standard, common component of messaging operations. After all, email services do not intercept messages while they are on their server - these messages should be there, otherwise nothing will work. After this argument, the court ruled that the company did not provide enough information about the operation of its messaging service in order to call the practice “normal”.
Preventive justice
Civil power, considered as such, seems to be a combination of that class of natural rights that the individual is not able to exercise independently and which are thus useless to her, but, when put together, become useful to everyone. (Thomas Payne, Human Rights)
The state has power because we allow it to do so. We give part of our freedom and rights in order to receive social protection, protection from external aggressors, and the possibility of a comfortable life. But with the advent of the Internet, we have less and less “personal” information: the contacts of many can be easily found in the profile on Giktayms, you can find the address and name of a person by the number of his car. Our telephone calls can be tapped .
Few people want his personal life to be invaded in any way. And at the same time, many use social networks and look for answers to questions on the Internet, forgetting that we are already under total surveillance in order to earn more money. Facebook even saves draft posts .
In late November, there was a stir in the British media around the crime committed in the spring of 2013: a soldier of the British army, Lee Rigby, was killed in protest against the killing of Muslims by the British army. At the same time, the criminals left many traces, and, if Facebook had passed the information to the intelligence at the right time, the murder would not have taken place.
We are talking about preventive justice: the concept by which activities are carried out to prevent the commission of illegal activities by bona fide entities . The notary of the Latin type serves similar purposes. An interesting fact from Wikipedia: in the United States, where there is no Latin notary, the cost of legal proceedings in 1996 amounted to 2% of GDP, and in Western Europe, where there is such a notary, expenses are five times less - 0.4% of GDP.
So the question is: are you ready to agree to scan your correspondence?
Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.
Are you ready to consent to the scanning and processing of your correspondence on social networks?
- 19.6% Yes, I have nothing to hide 52
- 62.8% No, privacy is important to me 166
- 17.4% In social networks - it’s all the same, but in mail services there should be a secret of correspondence 46