​Mark Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Automatically Scans Users' Private Messenger Texts

Fresh off the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Mark Zuckerberg has now also admitted that Facebook scans all of your private Messenger conversations.

Zuckerberg confirmed the revelation during a podcast interview with Vox's editor at large, Ezra Klein.

He told a story about receiving a phone call from staff at his Mountain View firm, which related to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

Because Facebook had detected people trying to send sensational messages through the Messenger app, alarm bells started ringing.

"In that case, our systems detect what's going on," Zuckerberg said. "We stop those messages from going through."

However, Messenger has said that it does not use data from messages it has scanned for advertising purposes.

Instead, the company told Bloomberg that it merely uses the same tools to prevent abusive content in messages.

"For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our automated systems scan it using photo matching technology to detect known child exploitation imagery or when you send a link, we scan it for malware or viruses," a Facebook Messenger spokeswoman said in a statement.

"Facebook designed these automated tools so we can rapidly stop abusive behaviour on our platform."

In another statement, Facebook Messenger added: "Keeping your messages private is the priority for us; we protect the community with automated systems that detect things like known images of child exploitation and malware. This is not done by humans."

The reaction to the news on social media has been mixed.

One person has claimed that his Messenger texts have been used to target advertising, tweeting: "So I was messaging my wife about dinner tonight mentioned a particular place on Facebook messenger and then opened up Facebook about to see an ad for that restaurant.

"Tell me they aren't in on every convo I have. Scary!"

Addressing the concerns - and criticisms - that its users have had, Facebook has recently said it will give its privacy tools a makeover.

Going into more detail about the road ahead, Egan and Beringer explained that Facebook would address its responsibility to tell its users how it collects and uses its data in language that's 'detailed, but also east to understand'.

"in the coming weeks, we'll be proposing updates to Facebook's terms of service that include our commitments to people," they said.

"We'll also update our data policy to better spell out what data we collect and how we use it."