Amnesty Internationale issued a disgraceful complaint against the world’s dominant Internet companies in a new report, arguing that Google and Facebook should be forced to abandon what it calls their surveillance-based business model because it’s’ pronounced against human rights abusses.’
The study said that the policy of the organization to vacuum personal data to feed voracious advertising companies constitutes an unparalleled attack on privacy rights. It says that businesses force people to enter into a “Faustian deal” with the sharing of data to access Google and Facebook services that are increasingly dominating the world public square.
“This systematic surveillance has challenged the very nature of the right to privacy,” said the report adding that “the use of algorithmic frameworks by companies to create and infer in-depth human profiles interferes with our ability to shape their identities in a private sphere.” This found current regulations — and the private protection measures of the firms themselves — insufficient.
In a 5-page reply, Facebook disagreed with the conclusion that the business practices of the company are “inconsistent with human rights principles.” Steve Satterfield, Facebook’s public policy director, also contested that social media behemoth’s business model was “monitoring based.”
“The choice of a person using the Facebook services and the way in which we collect, receive or use data— all of which were clearly divulged and accepted by users — cannot be meaningfully linked to the involuntary (and often unlawful) monitoring by the government,” the letter states.
Google did not provide a response to the report on the record, but contested its findings. Amnesty said the company provided information and documentation to the public.