Facebook is cutting police departments off from a vast trove of data that has been increasingly used to monitor protesters and activists. Although the social network’s core business is advertising, Facebook, along with Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram, also provides developers access to users' public feeds. For example, advertisers have tracked how and which consumers are discussing their products, while the Red Cross has used social data to get real-time information during disasters such as Hurricane Sandy. But the social networks have come under fire for working with third parties who market the data to law enforcement. It was unclear how Facebook would decide which emergencies and public events would warrant monitoring citizens’ data and which would constitute unreasonable “surveillance.” “Surveillance” was also not defined in the blog post, a potential gray area that outsiders can exploit.

Source: Washington Post March 13, 2017 13:37 UTC