Crime experts say social media chats aren’t monitored
Cyber crime experts said private messages and group chats on social media aren’t typically monitored.
“It’s a very intricate process that these companies have to endure because there’s just so much traffic,” said Boone County Cyber Crimes Task Force Detective Tracy Perkins.
Many social media platforms have millions of users, and Perkins said it’s impossible for companies to monitor every private conversation.
“People think they’re watching everything like emails and conversations,” Perkins said. “That’s not what happens.”
She said group chat apps try to act proactively but criminal activity continues to happen.
“There really is no application that is safe,” she said. “There has been some type of transferring of child pornography and illegal activity on pretty much all types of applications.”
Many messaging apps will filter for specific words related to criminal activity, Perkins said.
The group chat app called Kik doesn’t have access to user conversations until a user makes a report and chooses to send a copy of the conversation to Kik, according to the app’s law enforcement guide.
