Project Ghostbusters: Facebook Accused of Using Your Phone to Wiretap Snapc

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Court filings unsealed last week allege Meta created an internal effort to spy on Snapchat in a secret initiative called "Project Ghostbusters." Meta did so through Onavo, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service the company offered between 2016 and 2019 that, ultimately, wasn't private at all.

Posted by LampLighter at 01:33 PM | 9 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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... "Whenever someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because their traffic is encrypted we have no analytics about them," said Mark Zuckerberg in an email to three Facebook executives in 2016, unsealed in Meta's antitrust case on Saturday. "It seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them ... You should figure out how to do this."

Thus, Project Ghostbusters was born. It's Meta's in-house wiretapping tool to spy on data analytics from Snapchat starting in 2016, later used on YouTube and Amazon. This involved creating "kits" that can be installed on iOS and Android devices, to intercept traffic for certain apps, according to the filings. This was described as a "man-in-the-middle" approach to get data on Facebook's rivals, but users of Onavo were the "men in the middle." ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-03-27 12:38 AM | Reply

(lights are still flickering here... )

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-03-27 12:39 AM | Reply

flickering lights aside...

Big Tech appears to have major issues that need to be resolved.

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-03-27 12:53 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

That's why i never installed facebook on my phone or told it my real phone number. I knew that zuckerberg would be spying on me somehow.

#4 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2024-03-28 01:39 PM | Reply

Same here. There is no way I'd ever use FB on my phone, or give it valid personal info besides my name.

#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-03-28 01:53 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

#5 | Posted by LampLighter

You gave it your name!?!?! I know some people in my friends list that didn't even do that.

#6 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2024-03-28 04:00 PM | Reply

Same here. There is no way I'd ever use FB on my phone, or give it valid personal info besides my name.

#5 | Posted by LampLighter

Yeah I didn't give it my real name either.

#7 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2024-03-29 01:05 PM | Reply

A client required me to get on Facebook about 15 years ago. I used a false name. I have three "friends," none of whom post anything, which is fine, because I never post anything either.

I have a reason to keep a presence there, but I loathe Facebook.

#8 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2024-03-29 11:30 PM | Reply

I got booted from FB two years ago for flaming (alright..eviserating) a hysterical Trumper crone that kept stalking me for months, thread after thread, giving me ----- about my dead cat of all things. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened, as it made me realize I was just trolling for thick-brick Trump puppies to kick, and that's not me. One should refrain from becoming one's enemy, eh?

#9 | Posted by dutch46 at 2024-03-30 07:24 AM | Reply