The Metropolitan Police and three other UK police forces have been found to be sharing sensitive data from their websites with Facebook, including information about people reporting sexual offences and domestic abuse. The data was collected via Meta Pixel, a tracking tool embedded in the police websites, and was used for targeted advertising.
The Observer's investigation found that when a visitor clicked on a link to "securely and confidentially report rape or sexual assault" on the Met's website, Facebook received details including the nature of the offence, the time the page was viewed, and a code identifying the person's Facebook account. The tool also sent information about content viewed and buttons clicked on pages related to contacting police, accessing victim services, and advice pages for crimes such as stalking and fraud.
The Met said it had removed the tracker and was investigating, claiming that no personal data inputted by people reporting crime had been shared. It said the pixel was installed for a recruitment marketing campaign and that steps were being taken to remove it from non-recruitment pages. Separately, Police Scotland, Norfolk Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary were also found to be using the tool. Norfolk and Suffolk shared data when visitors clicked links to report antisocial behaviour, domestic abuse, rape, hate crime and corruption, and also on a page titled "Tell us something anonymously." Both forces said they had used the tool for recruitment and had removed it.
The findings have prompted criticism from victims' charities and privacy experts. Dame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner, said: "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." Mark Richards, an online privacy researcher, likened it to "asking someone to report a crime while a stranger is in the room." Prof David Leslie of the Alan Turing Institute described the data-sharing as "reckless", adding: "The expectation of people going on to police sites is that their data is being protected and not shared with any third-party vendors. This just should not be happening."
The Information Commissioner's Office said the findings raised "real privacy concerns" and said it would consider the evidence. Meta Pixel is a free tool offered by Facebook that allows organisations to track website visitors and target them with ads. It collects information about people with and without Facebook accounts. The tech company's parent, Meta, has not commented.
