Facebook Reportedly Collects Data About Abortion Seekers

Facebook Reportedly Collects Data About Abortion Seekers

What's happening

An collaborative investigation between two journalism nonprofits finds that Facebook is collecting personal data about abortion seekers.

Why it matters

Lawmakers and privacy experts are raising concerns about how technology can be abused, after a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court planned to overturn federal abortion rights.

Facebook is reportedly collecting data about people who visit the websites of so-called crisis pregnancy centers, raising concerns from privacy experts that information about abortion seekers could be abused.

A collaborative investigation between journalism nonprofits The Markup and Reveal, which is part of The Center for Investigative Reporting, analyzed nearly 2,500 crisis pregnancy center websites and found that at least 294 of these sites shared visitor information with Facebook. Some of the sensitive personal data included information about whether a person is considering abortion or trying to obtain emergency contraceptives or a pregnancy test.

Concerns about how such data could be used to identify abortion seekers have increased after Politico published a story in early May about a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that suggests the court will strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. In late May, US lawmakers urged Google to stop collecting and retaining user location data because it could be tapped to identify people seeking abortions. The Supreme Court decision has not been released yet, but it would strike down national constitutional protection of abortion rights. Individual states would then decide whether to restrict or ban abortion.

Reveal and The Markup reported that it isn't clear how Facebook uses data about abortion seekers.

But privacy experts say that in states where abortion is outlawed, people who condemn the procedure could use such data as evidence against abortion seekers. They say the crisis pregnancy centers, which exist to persuade people against having abortions, could also use the data to target advertising or misinformation at people to deter them from opting for the procedure.

Dale Hogan, a spokesperson for Facebook parent company Meta, told the news outlets that the company's system is "designed to filter out potentially sensitive data" and that it's against Facebook's rules for apps and websites to send "sensitive information about people" through the company's business tools. Hogan sent the same statement to CNET.

Reveal and The Markup said it's unknown whether Facebook's filters caught the sensitive data. Privacy experts suggested that ways of preventing misuse of the data include strengthening the social media platform's filters or getting rid of a tool called the Meta Pixel that allows websites to track visitor activity.

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Samsung Galaxy Source Code Compromised in Data Breach

Samsung Galaxy Source Code Compromised in Data Breach

A cybersecurity breach has compromised Samsung source code data related to the operation of its Galaxy devices, the company said Monday. However, no personal information of Samsung customers or employees was exposed, according to an initial analysis done by the company. 

"We were recently made aware that there was a security breach relating to certain internal company data," Samsung said in an email to CNET. "Immediately after discovering the incident, we strengthened our security system." 

Samsung has not named who it believes is responsible for the breach, but Lapsus$, a hacking group that reportedly stole data from Nvidia, claimed responsibility on Friday after posting a 190GB torrent file to Telegram, according to Bloomberg. 

Samsung said that it doesn't expect the breach to impact its business or customers and that it has put preventive measures in place to block future incidents. 

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Facebook reportedly exempted high-profile users from its rules

Facebook reportedly exempted high-profile users from its rules

Facebook reportedly exempted millions of high-profile users, including celebrities and politicians, from some or all of its community standards, apparently contradicting the social network's public statements that its rules apply to everyone. 

The Wall Street Journal, citing internal documents, reported Monday that the world's largest social network created a program known as Cross Check, or XCheck, that shielded public figures from the company's rules against harassment and incitement to violence. The documents, for example, revealed that Facebook allowed Brazilian soccer player Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. to post nude photos of a woman who accused him of rape before it pulled down the content, according to the report. Some high-profile users who were exempted from content moderation enforcement shared false claims, including about vaccines.

An internal review of Facebook's practices from 2019 stated the company "was not actually doing what we say we do publicly." The XCheck program also included most government officials but not all candidates running for office, according to the report. In 2020, at least 5.8 million users were reportedly part of XCheck.

Facebook has faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans about what content it leaves up or pulls down. The documents will likely raise concerns again about whether the social network is fairly enforcing its rules. The company formed a content oversight board to review some of its toughest decisions. 

Citing a post from 2018, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in a tweet on Monday that the program was meant to give certain Facebook pages and profiles a "second layer of review to make sure we've applied our policies correctly." 

"There aren't two systems of justice; it's an attempted safeguard against mistakes," he said in the tweet.

Facebook's oversight board said in a tweet it recommended that the company "be far more transparent in general, including about its management of high-profile accounts, while ensuring that its policies treat all users fairly."

Advocacy groups and some of Facebook's most vocal critics called for more oversight over the social network.

"Urgent government regulation is needed to ensure the online world is one in which human rights are effectively protected. These disclosures underscore the fact that we simply cannot rely on companies to self-regulate," said Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, in a statement.

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