San Francisco (AFP)

Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized the "surveillance-based" business model of Facebook and Google giants as "a systemic threat to human rights".

In a report, the NGO argues that by making their services online, free, indispensable to billions of people, and then using the personal data thus collected for targeted advertising, these groups threaten the freedoms of opinion and expression.

"Their insidious control of our digital lives undermines the very foundation of privacy and is one of the major human rights challenges of our time," Amnesty International's Kumi Naidoo said in a statement. communicated.

"Google and Facebook have been steadily shrinking our privacy, and today we are trapped, either by submitting to this vast surveillance machine - where our data is easily used to manipulate and influence us - or we give up the benefits. of the digital world, "he added.

"The extraction and analysis of personal data, in such gigantic proportions, are incompatible with the various facets of the right to privacy, including the freedom not to intrude into our private lives, the right to control information about us and the right to a space that allows us to freely express our identities, "Amnesty says.

According to the NGO, "the vast advertising architecture of Google and Facebook is a powerful weapon in the wrong hands" because "it can be diverted for political purposes" and "leaves the field open to all kinds of new advertising strategies to the hints exploitation, such as attacking vulnerable people who are struggling with illness, mental disorders or addiction. "

The NGO therefore calls on governments to "act with urgency", including "enforcing robust data protection laws and effectively regulating the activities of technology giants".

- Data and advertising -

Facebook defended itself against what he called inaccurate in the report.

"The economic model of Facebook is not, as your summary suggests, focused on collecting data from people," the group said in response to a summary of Amnesty's report. "As you correctly point out, we do not sell data, we sell advertisements."

The boss and co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has called on governments to regulate more on the management of personal data, instead of allowing private companies to make crucial decisions regarding, for example, the limits of freedom of expression.

In September, the social media giant said it has suspended "tens of thousands" of applications potentially posing a risk in terms of respect for the privacy of its users.

This measure was taken following an investigation in response to the scandal of Cambridge Analytica: in 2018, a whistleblower had revealed that this British company had conducted massive manipulation campaigns, via third-party applications on Facebook, to influence American and British voters.

Google has not responded to solicitations on the subject.

© 2019 AFP