Meta reported a surveillance company, Voyager Labsaccused of creating several fakes account Facebook to collect information and provide surveillance services for customers. We are not talking about a couple of fake profiles, but about tens of thousands.
Meta denounces a surveillance company: it created fake Facebook profiles to steal data
Voyager Labs provides “AI-based investigative solutions”. In other words, it analyzes mass social media posts to draw conclusions about the personal lives of the investigators. In 2021, The Guardian reported that the LAPD would use these services to predict who would commit crimes in the future.
Meta sued the company because it would created 38,000 fake Facebook accounts, used to collect information about Facebook and Instagram posts without any permission. The company would also do similar operations on Twitter, YouTube and Telegram, according to the complaint.
According to Meta’s complaint, Voyager Labs would have collected data (doing “scraping”) of over 600,000 Facebook users in the summer of 2022. Furthermore, the company explains that it has deleted over 60,000 pages from Instagram and Facebook related to the company.
Meta demands that the company stop violating the social conditions and requests the payment of damages based on the company’s revenue derived from Instagram and Facebook data.
A number of scholars and experts have explained that software for predicting possible crimes in the future based on a person’s past and online activity is inaccurate. And a 2019 study by the LAPD revealed that predictions had clear racial bias.
At the moment the surveillance company has not responded to the allegations. We will keep you informed of the outcome of the case.