Meta’s own Oversight Board recommends privacy improvements
Meta should increase privacy, the company’s Oversight Board says in its first policy advisory opinion. Meta is recommended to remove the exception to the Privacy Violations Community Standard that allows the sharing of private residential information when it is considered “publicly available.” “This would help Meta better protect people’s private residential information.”
The Board also proposes that Meta create a communications channel for victims of doxing, give users more control over how they consent to sharing their private residential information and provide data showing the amount of content removed following privacy-related government requests.
Meta does not allow private residential information in general but an exception is if it is already” publicly available”. A number of people have protested against so called doxing that reveals private information including addresses
Following discussions about doxing, Meta management had asked the Oversight Board’ s advise. The management is not forced to follow the Board’s recommendation but should submit an answer within two months.
The sharing of private residential addresses and images represents a potentially serious violation of the right to privacy both for people who use Facebook and Instagram, and those who do not, the Board says.
“Once this information is shared, the harms that can result, such as doxing, are difficult to remedy. Harms resulting from doxing disproportionately affect groups such as women, children and LGBTQIA+ people, and can include emotional distress, loss of employment and even physical harm or death.”
“As the potential for harm is particularly context specific, it is challenging to develop objective and universal indicators that would allow content reviewers to distinguish the sharing of content that would be harmful from shares that would not be. That is why the Board believes that the Privacy Violations policy should be more protective of privacy.”
The Board says it favours narrowing the exceptions to the Privacy Violations policy to help Meta better protect the private residential information of people both on and off its platforms.
The Board’s recommendation includes a detailed 17-point plan saying the “publicly available” exception should no longer apply.
Moonshot News is an independent European news website for all IT, Media and Advertising professionals, powered by women and with a focus on driving the narrative for diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the industry.
Our mission is to provide top and unbiased information for all professionals and to make sure that women get their fair share of voice in the news and in the spotlight!
We produce original content, news articles, a curated calendar of industry events and a database of women IT, Media and Advertising associations.
