Amnesty International: Facebook and Google Pose a Threat to Human Rights

Do they collect too much data?

The international human rights organization Amnesty International believes that Facebook and Google pose an unprecedented systematic threat to human rights. This is reported by Engadget.

In particular, Amnesty is concerned about the companies' "all-pervasive surveillance." In a new report, the organization warns against "ubiquitous monitoring of billions of people" and calls for a "radical transformation of the core business model of the tech giants."

Amnesty states that although Facebook and Google do not charge a fee, users pay for their services with their personal data. It is noted that such data can be used against users.

Steve Satterfield, Facebook's director of privacy and public policy, wrote: "We disagree with your conclusion that our practices are not consistent with human rights principles". Facebook claims that its business model is based on advertising and promotes human rights by giving people a voice and freedom of assembly.

Previously, the slogan "It's free and always will be" disappeared from Facebook's homepage. For the first time in more than 10 years, the company changed its slogan — it now reads "It's fast and easy." 

An expert believes that the text changed because of Directive 2019/770, adopted by the European Union in May 2019. According to this document, users' personal data is already considered payment, since it is very valuable.