Facebook really DOES spy on you through your phone camera, US lawsuit claims
FACEBOOK is being sued for allegedly spying on Instagram users through their iPhone cameras.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has been accused of accessing iPhone cameras even when users weren't on the app.
Reports of this issues surfaced back in July.
Facebook said a bug was responsible and that it was working to fix it.
According to , Instagram user Brittany Conditi is now filing a lawsuit against the social media giant in a San Francisco federal court.
She claims that Facebook was accessing cameras on purpose "to collect lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to.”
Conditi thinks Facebook wants to spy on users for advertising purposes.
The lawsuit states: "By obtaining extremely private and intimate personal data on their users, including in the privacy of their own homes, Facebook is able to increase their advertising revenue by targeting users more than ever before."
She also said that Facebook is “able to see in-real time how users respond to advertisements on Instagram, providing extremely valuable information to its advertisers.”
Facebook declined to comment at this time.
Back in July, a preview of new iOS 14 feature revealed when apps are snooping through your microphone or camera.
This alerted some iPhone users to Instagram turning on their camera.
Facebook admitted the problem at the time but maintained it was due to a bug and not spying.
Facebook's biggest cyber-security mistakes
Here's some of the major times Facebook let us down...
- In 2007, Facebook's first targetted advertising product, Beacon, caused outrage because there was initally no opt-in option about the kinds of information users wanted to share
- In 2009, a Federal Trade Commission investigation was triggered because Facebook users complained that the new privacy tools were too confusing and pushed users to make more of their personal information public
- In 2010, it was revealed that advertisers were using a privacy loophole to retrieve revealing personal information about Facebook users and the company had to change its software
- In 2011, the FTC charged Facebook with lying to customers about how their information could be kept private but making it public anyway
- 2018 saw Facebook's biggest privacy scandal to date with reports that Cambridge Analytica misused user data and Facebook had to admit that it had failed to protect its users
Most read in Phones & Gadgets
In other news, Facebook is teaming up with Ray-Ban to bring us its first pair of "smart glasses".
Videos of a top-secret virtual reality headset developed by Facebook have leaked online.
And, the social media giant was branded a “danger to public health” as a shock report reveals staggering failure to crack down on fake news.
Do you worry about Facebook spying on you? Let us know in the comments...
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