Instagram user accuses Facebook of spying on users via phone camera; files lawsuit

A lawsuit has been filed against Facebook accusing the social media platform of spying on Instagram users through their cameras. The complaint has been filed by an Instagram user in the federal court in San Francisco of New Jersey according to international media reports. Earlier in July, media reports alleged that Instagram has been accessing the cameras of the iPhone users of the app even when they were inactive. The social media giant went on to deny the claims and blamed a bug for the 'false notification and asserted that they were trying to correct it. 

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Instagram user sues Facebook for 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 Instagram 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.

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According to the report, Facebook and Instagram are accessing extremely private information and personal data available on the smartphone of the users for the purpose of 'market research'. This isn't the first time a privacy concern related lawsuit has been filed against the social media giant. According to the Bloomberg report, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Facebook last month, alleging that Instagram has been accessing the biometric data of the user like face scans/recognition which allows it to automatically tag users in their photographic using the photos from their database. The lawsuit has been filed in Illinois for the violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act which says that face scans and biometric data cannot be collected without the consent of the user.

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