News about Facebook’s threat monitoring tool have recently drawn attention, as the degree of monitoring involved by the company has become more apparent. Intended to identify potentially threatening comments, and dangers to the company and employees, the tool can also draw on some of Facebook’s products to obtain tracking information for those under suspicion, according to CNBC.
While it is not uncommon for companies to maintain databases of people considered as possible threats, it is unusual for a company to have as detailed information as Facebook. In particular, the use of location data for specific users has drawn criticisms, with at least one former employee describing it as “very Big Brother-esque.” That the criteria for addition to Facebook’s list of threatening individuals is also not clear to users, and that addition to the monitoring list is not communicated to the user, can also be seen as an intrusion and abuse of Facebook’s internal data. A former employee noted standards for adding someone to the list of perceived threats was not clear, with decisions frequently being made on a case-by-case basis.
While noting the uniqueness of Facebook’s access to location data, senior consultant with Incident Management Group Tim Bradley says of Facebook’s threat list, “If they know there’s a threat against them, they have to take steps. How they got the information is secondary to the fact that they have a duty to protect employees.”
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