Habitual Business Practices: Why Human Rights Defenders Accused Google and Facebook of Human Rights Violations

Google and Facebook’s business models threaten human rights, Amnesty International said.

“Google and Facebook platforms are a public danger. The business model of these companies, based on surveillance, forces people to make a deal with the devil, by virtue of which they can use their human rights online only by submitting to a system built on violation of human rights. First of all, they include an unprecedented infringement of privacy, from which a number of side effects arise that pose a serious threat to a number of other rights, starting with freedom of opinion and expression and ending with freedom of thought and the right to non-discrimination, ”the organization’s report says. .

The document’s description also states that Google and Facebook provide their users with “supposedly free access,” but instead “they require people to share their personal data.”

“They (data. - RT ) are then analyzed to unite people into groups and build a forecast of their interests and characteristics - first of all, so that using this data, companies can earn money on advertising,” Amnesty International reports.

The report notes that "with such a scale of collection and monetization of personal data using these platforms, it is impossible to exercise the right of people to privacy."

According to Amnesty International, the “data collection of billions of users” conducted by Google and Facebook has reached such a scale that if the authorities carried it out directly, “no one would put up with it.” In addition, it is specified that the principles of the work of technological giants are caused by "extensive selfish interests."

“Given their (Google and Facebook. - RT ) active lobbyism towards the very authorities that should control them, there is every reason to believe that these companies are not capable of self-regulation,” the report compilers conclude.

The document also says that the "breach of confidentiality on which the business model of Facebook and Google is built" is clearly demonstrated by the participation of these companies "in numerous privacy scandals."

“Despite the assurances of companies about their commitment to privacy, it’s hard not to consider these numerous privacy violations their usual business practices, and not a deviation,” Amnesty International reports.

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It is also noted that the Google and Facebook platforms are engaged not only in extracting colossal amounts of data about ordinary citizens, but also in detailing this information through the use of complex algorithmic systems.

“These systems are aimed at finding the best ways to achieve results in the interests of companies, including fine-tuning addressing and displaying ads, as well as the behavioral incentives that keep people on platforms. It has been proven that these algorithmic systems have a number of side effects that pose a serious threat to the rights of the population, including freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought and the right to equality and non-discrimination, ”the organization said.

At the same time, risks, according to Amnesty International, are "significantly exacerbated" due to the coverage of Google and Facebook platforms, "because of which the human rights of the entire population are at risk."

Not the first charge

Recall the accusations against these IT corporations are not the first time. Platforms repeatedly found themselves in the center of scandals related to the leak of personal data or with intentional violation of user rights.

For example, Facebook more than once on its own initiative blocked “objectionable” groups and pages. However, in September, the company announced that it was not a public forum, but a private publisher that could publish and block information at its discretion. This argument was put forward by the social network in response to a lawsuit by journalist Laura Lumer, whose Facebook account was blocked, calling the girl a “dangerous person” because of her right-wing political views. Lumer, in turn, accused the company of trying to limit its right to freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

A month later, the social network once again blocked a group supporting US President Donald Trump and the United States police. The Police Lives Matter community page had 170,000 followers. Then, Facebook spokesman Joe Osbourne said the group allegedly “violated the rules against spam and fake accounts.”

And in August, the American agency Bloomberg reported that Facebook paid hundreds of third-party contractors who decrypt the voice messages of users of services that belong to the corporation. According to agency sources, the company has set such a task for freelance employees who did not know how the corporation received these records. Journalists of the publication emphasize that Facebook did not inform users of third-party access to their personal data.

Not lagging behind their colleagues and Google. The US Senate expressed concern that the corporation is collecting data from millions of Americans as part of a project implemented in conjunction with one of the largest healthcare systems. Minnesota U.S. Senator and U.S. presidential candidate Amy Klobushar said on her official website that not only this collaboration is causing serious privacy issues in the United States.

• US Democratic candidate Amy Klobushar
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According to her, the threat of the theft of data of American citizens also comes from health tracking applications, in particular, the American corporation Fitbit.

Meanwhile, the U.S. authorities launched an investigation into a Google project to collect and analyze personal medical data. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

In addition, Google has recently been increasingly blamed for political manipulation. So, on August 19, Donald Trump accused the corporation of influencing the choice of voters in favor of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.

“Wow, the report just came out! During the 2016 election, Google manipulated between 2.6 million and 16 million voters in favor of Hillary Clinton! The information is made public by a Clinton supporter, not Trump! Google should sue. My victory turned out to be even larger than anticipated! ”, The American president wrote on his Twitter page, without specifying which report he was talking about.

Wow, Report Just Out! Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Election! This was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump Supporter! Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought! @JudicialWatch

According to Western media, the head of the White House probably had in mind a study by American psychologist Robert Epstein from the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, which was discussed that day on Fox Business.

Greg Coppola, senior software engineer at the corporation, also accused Google in a July interview with Project Veritas (Project Truth). According to him, the company directly affects the search results on the network by manipulating content delivery algorithms.

“Violate their agreements”

IT companies are still "trying to maintain the illusion" that the personal data of their users who hit the Internet can be private, said political analyst Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak.

“However, this excludes the commercial component of these corporations. In recent years, it has become absolutely clear that talking about the privacy of Google and Facebook users is a myth. It is now impossible to keep such large-scale information leaks secret, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Political scientist Alexander Asafov fully shares the opinion of his colleague. According to him, the business model of Google and Facebook is really "based on the trading of personal data."

“The main task of an IT company is to make money. Despite the high-profile declarations that the security of personal data is a priority for them, they are negligent in this regard, and accordingly, leaks, crashes, and hacks occur. In addition, they themselves violate their agreements for commercial profit. Their main business is selling users' personal data, ”the analyst said in a conversation with RT.

At the same time, Asafov emphasized that these corporations “cooperate with the FBI and the NSA.”

“Western authorities prefer not to notice breaches of confidentiality if cases have not received wide publicity in society, since such leaks are beneficial to them, and often happen on their own initiative. Now Western governments are trying to further intervene in the activities of these companies in order to use them as instruments of control, ”said the expert.

Asafov also recalled that Facebook and Google "played a huge role, including during the 2016 elections."

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"Given that the new presidential election is coming soon, of course, now in Western society the risk of the possible use of high-tech tools of these IT giants will also be considered during the upcoming election process in the USA in 2020," the analyst said.

According to Asafov, an era has already come when the personal data of users at the disposal of Western IT giants are not regarded as confidential information. And the situation will only worsen, the expert said.

“Now it saves us only that such huge data arrays cannot be processed efficiently yet, because there are no capacities that could analyze all this at the level of algorithms. We are talking about, among other things, user habits, preferences and features, as well as the movements of the user of a mobile phone. However, when technologies allow to decrypt everything in full, this will lead to the fact that the lives of all ordinary citizens, without exception, will be transparent to IT corporations, ”the analyst summed up.