Alan C. Posted September 2, 2013 Posted September 2, 2013 Test 'reveals Facebook, Twitter and Google snoop on emails': Study of net giants spurs new privacy concerns Facebook, Twitter and Google have been caught snooping on messages sent across their networks, new research claims, prompting campaigners to express concerns over privacy.The findings emerged from an experiment conducted following revelations by US security contractor Edward Snowden about government snooping on internet accounts.Cyber-security company High-Tech Bridge set out to test the confidentiality of 50 of the biggest internet companies by using their systems to send a unique web address in private messages.Experts at its Geneva HQ then waited to see which companies clicked on the website.During the ten-day operation, six of the 50 companies tested were found to have opened the link.Among the six were Facebook, Twitter, Google and discussion forum Formspring.High-Tech Bridge chief executive Ilia Kolochenko said: ‘We found they were clicking on links that should be known only to the sender and recipient.'If the links are being opened, we cannot be sure that the contents of messages are not also being read.'All the social network sites would like to know as much as possible about our hobbies and shopping habits because the information has a commercial value.‘The fact that only a few companies were trapped does not mean others are not monitoring their customers. They may simply be using different techniques which are more difficult to detect.’
SBRFS Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 Just another reason to migrate to software such as Friendica running on equipment such as FreedomBox. Perhaps FDR should promote GNU- and privacy-oriented projects, if it doesn't already. FDR doesn't even use HTTP Secure, does it? I find that a bit strange for a site where so many people spill the beans about their personal issues.
Heath Long Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 I am sure that they do spy. But I do not think this particular test proves much. I can see how their anti spam systems might trigger a positive for this test. Not saying that their servers are not tied into the NSA or vice versa, but this test does not really say much. Snowden's release is enough for me to say with certainty that theses companies, while perhaps not spying themselves, are a part of a spy apparatus on the web.
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