Facebook let staff use deleted data by people, fired employee says

An ex-Facebook content screener claims he was let go for voicing concerns about a business policy allowing staff to recover deleted user data.

Brennan Lawson filed a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., on Tuesday in California. He claims that after learning about the new protocol at a staff meeting in late 2018, he instantly questioned its validity. He claimed he lost his job shortly after and was out of work for 18 months. He is requesting punitive damages in addition to more than $3 million in compensation.

An official statement from Meta stated, “These charges are without merit, and we will firmly defend ourselves against them.”

According to Lawson’s complaint, the protocol permitted members of the social network’s Global Escalation Team “to evade Facebook’s standard privacy measures” by obtaining information from the Messenger app “that users had chosen to delete.”

According to the complaint, the protocol appeared to go against both a Federal Trade Commission ruling requiring Facebook to provide users with proper information about its data retention policy and European Union digital privacy laws.

Lawson claimed he was aware of his “shaky foundation” in challenging the legality of the practice and was concerned about being fired if he persisted. In July 2019, he was let go for allegedly abusing a Facebook administrative tool. He asserts that was a ruse and a reprisal for his complaint.

According to Lawson, the Escalation Team used the methodology to assist law enforcement with user investigations.

Law enforcement would inquire about the suspect’s use of the platform, Lawson stated, including questions about who the suspect was texting, when messages were made, and even what was said in those communications. The Escalations Team would use the back-end protocol to transmit information to the law enforcement agency and then decide how much to share so order to maintain Facebook in good standing with the government.

Lawson v. Meta Platforms Inc., 22-civ-02723, San Mateo County, California Superior Court, is the case at hand (Redwood City).