Facebook investigating claim employee used access to stalk women

Facebook is investigating an accusation that one of its employees used access to company data to stalk women online, the Silicon Valley giant said in a statement Monday.

“Although we can’t comment on any individual personnel matters, we are aware of the situation and investigating,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News, adding that it maintains “strict technical controls” and “policies to restrict employee access to user data.” The statement came in response to a story about the claim by the website Motherboard.

The accusation surfaced when Spyglass Security founder Jackie Stokes tweeted she learned a security engineer currently employed at Facebook was “likely using privileged access to stalk women online.” She later said multiple multiple senior Facebook employees had contacted her about her tweet.

Stokes told Motherboard that she provided relevant information she obtained to Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos.

In its statement, Facebook said, “Access is scoped by job function, and designated employees are only allowed to access the amount of information that’s necessary to carry out their job responsibilities, such as responding to bug reports, account support inquiries, or valid legal requests.”

It said the company has a “zero-tolerance approach to abuse” and “improper behavior results in termination.”

CBS News’ Gisela Perez contributed to this report.