Is Facebook Watching Instagram Users Through Unauthorised Cameras? Lawsuit Claims Spying, Invasion Of Privacy

A lawsuit has been filed against Facebook alleging that the social media platform is spying on Instagram users through cameras lately. Know the details below.

Getty Images

A lawsuit has been filed against Facebook accusing the social media platform of spying on Instagram users through their cameras. The lawsuit springs from media reports in July that the photo-sharing app appeared to be accessing iPhone cameras even when they weren't actively being used. Also Read|Paytm Removed From Google Play Store Following New Policy Guidelines; Company Says 'Your Money Is Completely Safe' Facebook denied the reports and blamed a bug, which it said it was correcting, for triggering what it described as false notifications that Instagram was accessing iPhone cameras.

Instagram user sues Facebook for an invasion of privacy

As reported by Bloomberg, Instagram user Brittany Conditi has claimed that the social media giant is invading the privacy of the users, spying on them, and monitoring their data. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook has been spying on the people through the unauthorised use and access of the mobile phone cameras of the users of the photo-sharing app. Conditi has further claimed that Facebook has been doing this intentionally. The complaint also suggests that the social media networking app has been 'invading the privacy of users' in order to collect 'lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to' as per the reported. By “obtaining extremely private and intimate personal data on their users, including in the privacy of their own homes,” Instagram and Facebook are able to collect “valuable insights and market research,” according to the complaint. Facebook declined to comment. In a suit filed last month, Facebook was accused of using facial-recognition technology to illegally harvest the biometric data of its more than 100 million Instagram users. Facebook denied the claim and said that Instagram doesn't use face recognition technology.