Facebook has been accused of using its mobile applications to gather information about users and their friends, including non-subscribers, reading their text messages, tracking their locations and accessing photos on their phones, a report by the Guardian said. A court case in California has brought these allegations against the social networking giant.
The claims of mass surveillance are part of a lawsuit that has been lodged against Facebook by a former startup called Six4Three and are listed in legal documents which are part of the two-year long ongoing case.
According to the Guardian, Facebook has reportedly claimed that these are confidential business matters and has had the details of these claims redacted from filings in court by Six4Three.
One of Six4Three’s allegations is that Facebook ‘lured’ developers and investors onto the platform with misleading claims and tracked users extensively without their consent. The company also claims that Facebook was able to collect metadata and the content on text messages, while on iPhones it had access to photographs, even ones that were not uploaded onto the social media platform. Non-subscribers who sent messages to subscribers also allegedly fell prey to Facebook’s tactics.
The Guardian report also says that the court documents say the Facebook was able to do much of this by surreptitiously setting an early end to privacy settings which could then expire without notice.
The newspaper has also quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying that Six4Three’s “claims have no merit, and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously”.
While Facebook is arguing that the case being dismissed, under a feature aimed to protect freedom of speech, Six4Three is opposing the motion.
(With inputs from The Guardian.)
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