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The Intercept did some digging into how Mall of America handled the Black Lives Matter protest staged there this past December that ended in 20 arrests, and what they found raises major privacy issues. According to documents obtained by The Intercept, the Mall of America security team compiled dossiers on local Black Lives Matters activists based on information gathered from a fake Facebook account created by a Mall of America security analyst. The analyst allegedly created the fake account, Catfish-style, and then befriended activists to gather photos and information about them.
According to The Intercept, that Facebook account was deleted soon after the outlet contacted Mall of America about this story. Mall of America sent Advertising Age a statement that neither confirms nor denies the allegations.