Facebook hands over private chats to US police, even sans warrant (2020)

https://onezero.medium.com/cops-are-increasingly-requesting-data-from-facebook-and-you-probably-wont-get-notified-if-they-5b7a2297df17

by zestyping • 5 years ago

59 10 5 years ago

onezero.medium.com

retrolaptopfan• 5 years ago

I wonder if glancing at the wrong thing in the Metaverse will send you to jail.

olliej• 5 years ago

It still irks me that police can use 3rd parties as an end run around the constitution.

Police should be required to have a warrant to access personal information, whether it's through a 3rd party or not. It's required for phones, why not every other source?

Grumble grumble, old man shouts at clouds, etc

Calvin02• 5 years ago

I hate to defend Facebook/Meta but HN title is pretty blatantly missing context.

Even the linked post says:

In most cases, law enforcement sends Facebook a search warrant or a government-issued subpoena for data. But Facebook policy also allows for “emergency requests,” where the tech giant will voluntarily hand over data outside of the legal process when police claim a case involves death or “potential bodily harm.”

So, it is unlikely that Facebook/Meta is just sharing your chat history over without just cause.

Regardless, you should be using Signal or WhatsApp for your chats anyways.

ssss11• 5 years ago

A sibling poster mentions when an emergency is announced that they do indeed hand it over - I do wonder though is that for USA, or all countries.

I’m curious why you recommend WhatsApp use when it’s a Meta/FB asset and they calamitously announced that your data will be shared with the rest of their entity (last year?) even though they swore they wouldn’t when they acquired WhatsApp. This event was the cause for millions of people to leave WhatsApp and cause Signal to be a mainstream competitor.

commoner• 5 years ago

Here is Facebook's Law Enforcement Online Request System:

https://www.facebook.com/records

I can confirm first-hand that Facebook will reveal your private messages to the police when an "emergency" is declared, without needing a warrant and without verification of the grounds for the request. I don't use Facebook anymore, and I don't touch any of Meta's services.

pyuser583• 5 years ago

Only real issue I see is accountability for an officer who lied.

mclightning• 5 years ago

sans warrant? I've never seen "sans" used in a generic context in english language before. that'll be my first

joeman1000• 5 years ago

What the hell is this trend of saying ‘sans’? We have a word for that already, it’s “without”! ‘Sans’ just looks so ridiculous.

zestyping• 5 years ago

HN has a character limit on post titles, and I had to find a way to trim off a couple letters to make it fit.

_imnothere• 5 years ago

Just use 'w/o' then ;)

Facebook hands over private chats to US police, even sans warrant (2020)

Related Stories