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Dear Friend,
Have you seen this?! Facebook gave Nebraska law enforcement access to a 17-year-old’s private Facebook messages — and now she’s being prosecuted for having an abortion.1
Facebook: Protect Your Users. Keep Private Messages PRIVATE.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, we’ve been warning of the dangers hidden in the massive amounts of sensitive and personal data collected and retained by platforms like Facebook — and how it could be weaponized against people seeking reproductive health care.
Now we are seeing this threat turn into a grim reality.
Most people think that their private messages are just that: private. And they would be if Facebook and other platforms actually cared enough about their users to take all of the necessary steps to protect them.
End-to-end encryption of private messages makes it possible for people to communicate without third parties viewing their conversations. But while this type of protection exists, it’s not available or easy to use on all of Facebook’s products.
Companies like Facebook collect and store tons of personal data about users to sell to advertisers. Facebook shouldn't retain so much sensitive data — and it should use encryption so that private messages stay private. That’s the only way to ensure that police can't use this information for criminal prosecution of reproductive health care.
Tell Facebook to keep private messages private.
When asked how Facebook would protect user data for people seeking abortions, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company’s encryption would protect people from “bad behavior or over-broad requests for information.”2 But by collecting and storing this data to begin with — and by neglecting to have encryption turned on in Messenger by default — he is putting users at risk.
Companies like Facebook have a history of standing up to dangerous government demands. Apple refused to comply with federal law-enforcement requests to break into an iPhone in 2016.3 And Facebook refused to comply with a wiretapping request for Messenger calls in 2018.4
Tech companies must do much more now to resist unjust demands from law enforcement.
By limiting data collection and ensuring that private messages are actually kept private, Facebook can protect its users in a post-Roe world.
But they won’t do it without a massive public push: Demand that Facebook protect its users and keep private messages private.
Thanks for all that you do,
The Free Press team
freepress.net
P.S. Facebook gave Nebraska law enforcement access to a 17-year-old’s private Facebook messages — and now she’s being prosecuted for having an abortion. Demand that Facebook protect its users and keep private messages private.
1. "Facebook Gave Police Their Private Data. Now This Duo Face Abortion Charges," The Guardian, Aug. 10, 2022
2. “Mark Zuckerberg Tells Employees That Facebook’s ‘Encryption’ Will Protect Abortion-Seeking Users,” Cyberscoop, June 30, 2022
3. “The Apple-FBI Case,” The New York Times
4. “Facebook Reportedly Avoids U.S. Government Wiretap of Messenger Voice Calls,” The Verge, Sept. 28, 2018
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