The Metropolitan Police have been caught sharing personal data from individuals reporting sexual offences, domestic abuse, and other crimes on their website with Facebook. This shocking revelation came after it was discovered that details of offences and users’ Facebook profile codes were transmitted via a tracking tool known as Meta Pixel, which was embedded on the police website.
Despite the police’s online reporting form being labelled as “secure,” The Observer reported that this data leak occurred without victims’ knowledge. Meta Pixel did not only track what pages victims viewed but also recorded clicks on pages related to contacting the police, victim support, and advice on serious crimes such as rape, assault, stalking, and fraud.
Dame Vera Baird, former victims commissioner, strongly criticised the practice, stating: “You think you are dealing with a public authority you can trust and in fact, you are dealing with Facebook and the wild world of advertising.”
The Observer’s investigation also revealed that Norfolk and Suffolk police forces shared sensitive data from visitors to crime-related pages on their websites. The Metropolitan Police admitted to using Meta Pixel solely for recruitment advertisements but pledged to remove the tool from all other pages on their website.
A spokesperson for the Met Police said, “At no point is the personal data inputted by an individual reporting crime ever shared with third parties.” They added, “The analytical data captured is reserved to the website operator (the police), does not enter the public domain, and no commercial organisation, including providers of analytics and advertising services, can use it.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, stated that it prohibits advertisers from sending sensitive information through its Business Tools. “Doing so breaks our policies, and we educate advertisers on proper setup to stop this,” Meta said.
Earlier investigations by The Observer uncovered that 20 NHS trusts had been sharing patients’ private data with Facebook via Meta Pixels. Following the exposé, 17 of these trusts committed to stopping the use of the tracking tool.
Norfolk and Suffolk police forces, along with the Metropolitan Police, have been contacted for comment as public outrage grows over this significant breach of privacy.
Originally published by UKNIP.
