Detailed in an article published by Reuters earlier today, Facebook employees notified law enforcement in South Florida after internal scanning software detected a suspicious conversation of a sexual nature between a 13-year-old girl and a man in his early thirties. When the software flags a conversation that could lead to criminal behavior, Facebook employees are notified and required to review the chat log or series of comments. If the conversation is deemed as seriously inappropriate and potentially criminal, Facebook employees notify local law enforcement.
For instance, the conversation in South Florida likely contained an exchange of sexual comments in addition to personal information such as a home address. According to Special Agent Supervisor Jeffrey Duncan, police officers used the girl’s Facebook account to continue the conversation and were able to place the man under arrest within 24 hours.
Charged with multiple counts of soliciting a minor, the man in question has plead not guilty to all charges. It’s likely that Facebook provides a full transcript of the entire conversation to law enforcement officials which can be used as evidence during a potential trial.
In order to catch pedophiles before they attack, the scanning software has analyzed real chat logs of that led up to a sexual assault of a minor in order to identify common phrases and keywords according to Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan. However, Sullivan indicated that the software doesn’t scan preexisting relationships as deeply. New relationships seem to be the focus of the software’s searches.
Sullivan stated “We’ve never wanted to set up an environment where we have employees looking at private communications, so it’s really important that we use technology that has a very low false-positive rate.” Sullivan didn’t indicate if the software also compares a collection of potentially suspicious conversations to check and see if a pedophile has attempted to contact multiple children on the social network.
Facebook management attempts to reduce the amount of communication between adults and minors by limiting visibility in search listings. For instance, minors aren’t listed within the Facebook search tool. In addition, only direct friends of a minor can enter into an online chat with them. However, minors can easily navigate around this barrier by lying about their age when setting up a Facebook profile. For children clearly under the age of thirteen, Facebook has setup a policy of immediate account deletion when notified about an underage user.
However, Facebook is considering lifting the ban on preteens in the future. In order to make the social network accessible for a younger audience, the company has to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law requires online sites to get the permission of a parent before enabling account access for a child younger than thirteen. Rather than having the child setup an account and issuing an email notification to the parent, Facebook could potentially create a system where the parent authorizes the account creation prior to the child’s involvement and sends the child a link through email or a text message that allows them to signup for an approved account. Hypothetically, the parent could also be setup as a permanent friend as well as have friend approval powers until the child becomes a teenager.
DuH!
I find this story quite curious. Is this the only instance in which Facebook has used its “internal monitoring software” (!) to help the police catch criminals? If not, then why is a story about a pedophile the only one to surface — or at least the first one to surface? Was this a “PR-friendly” way to introduce to the world Facebook’s true ability to spy on its users? After all, who’s going to question the legitimacy of a system used to ‘catch a predator’ — a man trying to have sex with a child? You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wants to come out against a system that makes it easier to remove filth like that from the general public sphere.
The fact is, this is politics 101, whether it was intended to be or not: you introduce a controversial subject by wrapping it in something so acceptable — the arrest of a pedophile — that it makes it difficult to object to. The question is, what other keywords has Facebook flagged? What will they flag next? Regardless of whether you break the law or not, this should bother you. Anyway, it bothers the hell out of me.
I thought pretty much the same thing… Great! They can catch a pedophile. I am glad they are able to accomplish that. This still does not take away from the fact that we are being spied on every time we use the service.
I can’t wait to start reading about how political dissidents are being imprisoned, under the ruse of “terrorism”. Fact is, this will be easily corrupted. I’m right there with you Andrew… As usual. This is scary…
I am going to start talking to the facebook employees via my chat convos.
I can’t imagine this is any more legal than the phone company randomly listening in on our private conversations or the USPS opening mail randomly. The country is just about ready to tip into the abyss of reactionism where anything goes in the name of preserving the status quo. A pedophile, terrorist or communist lurks around every corner.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.