{"id":7,"date":"2013-08-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/?p=7"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:17:20","slug":"facebook-monitors-your-chats-for-criminal-activity-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/facebook-monitors-your-chats-for-criminal-activity-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity [REPORT]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/span> and other social platforms are watching users\u2019 chats for
\ncriminal activity and notifying police if any suspicious behavior is
\ndetected, according to a report.<\/p>\n

The screening process begins with scanning software that monitors chats for
\nwords or phrases that signal something might be amiss, such as an
\nexchange of personal information\u00a0or vulgar language.\"\"<\/p>\n

The software pays more
\nattention to chats between users who don\u2019t already have a
\nwell-established connection on the site and whose profile data indicate
\nsomething may be wrong, such as a wide age gap. The scanning program is
\nalso \u201csmart\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s taught to
\nkeep an eye out for certain phrases found in the previously obtained
\nchat records from criminals including sexual predators.<\/p>\n

If the scanning software flags
\na suspicious chat exchange, it notifies Facebook security employees,
\nwho can then determine if police should be notified.<\/p>\n

Keeping most of the scanned
\nchats out of the eyes of Facebook employees may help Facebook deflect
\ncriticism from privacy advocates, but whether the scanned chats are
\ndeleted or stored permanently is yet unknown.<\/p>\n

The new details about
\nFacebook\u2019s monitoring system came from an interview which the
\ncompany\u2019s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan gave to Reuters<\/a>.
\nAt least one alleged child predator has been brought to trial directly
\nas a result of Facebook\u2019s chat scanning, according to
\nReuters\u2019 report.<\/p>\n

When asked for a comment,
\nFacebook only repeated the remarks given by Sullivan to Reuters:
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve never wanted to set up an environment where
\nwe have employees looking at private communications, so it\u2019s
\nreally important that we use technology that has a very low
\nfalse-positive rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEE
\nALSO: State
\nLaw Requires Sex Offenders to List Status on Facebook<\/a><\/strong>Facebook works with law
\nenforcement \u201cwhere appropriate and to the extent required by
\nlaw to ensure the safety of the people who use Facebook,\u201d
\naccording to a page<\/a>
\non its site.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe may disclose
\ninformation pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests
\n(including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief
\nthat the response is required by law. This may include respecting
\nrequests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have
\na good faith belief that the response is required by law under the
\nlocal laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction,
\nand are consistent with generally accepted international standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may also share
\ninformation when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent
\nfraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to
\nprotect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights
\nand Responsibilities. This may include sharing information with other
\ncompanies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, Facebook has cooperated
\nwith police investigations in the past. In April, it complied<\/a>
\nwith a police subpoena from the Boston Police Department by sending
\nprintouts of wall posts, photos and login\/IP data of a murder suspect.<\/p>\n

Is Facebook doing a public<\/strong><\/em>
\n service by monitoring chats for criminal behavior? Share your thoughts<\/strong><\/em>
\n in the comments.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This is a repost from Alex Fitzpatrick<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image
\ncourtesy of iStockphoto<\/a>,
\nadventtr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook and other social platforms are watching users\u2019 chats for criminal activity and notifying police if any suspicious behavior is detected, according to a report. The screening process begins with scanning software that monitors chats for words or phrases that signal something might be amiss, such as an exchange of personal information\u00a0or vulgar language. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[22,23,24,25,26],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-media","tag-facebook","tag-facebook-monitors","tag-facebook-monitors-your-chats","tag-facebook-monitors-your-chats-for-criminal-activity","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/workwithscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}