Facebook has fired an unnamed employee after an accusation surfaced that the staffer leveraged the company’s internal tools to cyber stalk women, Facebook told TheWrap on Wednesday.
The firing was first reported by NBC News.
“We are investigating this as a matter of urgency,” Alex Stamos, chief security officer at Facebook, told NBC News in a statement. “It’s important that people’s information is kept secure and private when they use Facebook,” he said. “It’s why we have strict policy controls and technical restrictions so employees only access the data they need to do their jobs – for example to fix bugs, manage customer support issues or respond to valid legal requests. Employees who abuse these controls will be fired.”
The accusation was brought to public attention by Spyglass Security founder Jackie Stokes on Sunday.
“I’ve been made aware that a security engineer currently employed at Facebook is likely using privileged access to stalk women online,” tweeted Stokes. “I have Tinder logs. What should I do with this information?”
Stokes included a screenshot of a text conversation she says was held with the unnamed Facebook employee, which supported her accusation that the staffer was breaching user privacy.
The firing comes on the heels of Facebook being grilled for its handling of user privacy, after up to 87 million users had their data unknowingly accessed by political firm Cambridge Analytica.