Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The oversight board of Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, recommended Tuesday that the social media sites better protect private addresses from online leaks referred to as doxxing.
The board recommended that Meta remove the exception to its privacy policy that allows the sharing of private residential information on Facebook and Instagram when it's considered "publicly available through news coverage, court filings, press releases, or other sources."
"This would help Meta better protect people's private residential information," the board said in a statement on the recommendation.
The board also said images of private residences could still be used as "the focus of the news story," but recommended Meta remove the sharing of images for private residents when there is a "context of organizing protests against the resident."
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It also proposed that Meta create a communications channel for the victims of doxxing, which refers to the release of documents, abbreviated as "dox," online that include private addresses. This includes situations where the private addresses are "made public with malicious intent," according to the board's public advisory opinion published Tuesday on the matter.
Still, the board said in its opinion that Meta should still "allow the publication of the addresses and images of officials residences of high-ranking government officials, such as heads of state, heads of federal or local government, ambassadors and consuls."
"Due to the public nature of their activities, high-ranking government officials may generally be expected to tolerate lower levels of privacy, especially at their place of work, and to receive heightened protection by security personnel," the board's opinion said. "High-ranking government officials may have access to state security, which could mean risks to safety in a context of protest would also be much less significant."
Meta also elaborated that the recommendation applied to protest at "publicly owned official residences -- and not private residences of government officials."
The public advisory opinion was based on Facebook's request for guidance on the issue, noting several potential harms linked to releasing personal information, including residential addresses through "doxxing."
"Facebook claims that 'justice' and 'revenge' are common motivations for doxing behavior and that this can have negative real-world consequences such as swatting (a wrong-premises police raid) and being targeted for harassment or stalking," the Oversight Board said in a statement on the request for a public advisory opinion on the matter.
