Happenings
Divisions
Programs
Happenings
Divisions
Programs
Project Ghostbusters: Meta's espionage on Snapchat users to formulate a competitive plan
Meta has been covertly monitoring Snapchat data of its users by intercepting and decoding the network traffic exchanged between users' devices and Snapchat servers. This initiative, dubbed as "Project Ghostbusters", primarily aimed to understand the utilization patterns of Snapchat by users, in order to develop a rival service.
Newly disclosed legal papers from a national lawsuit involving customers and Meta, the company that owns Facebook, reveal a clandestine operation started by Facebook in 2016. The mission was to intercept and decipher the network communication between Snapchat users and its servers.
The initiative, nicknamed "Project Ghostbusters," was designed to understand user activity and strengthen Facebook's competitive position against Snapchat.
Legal papers disclosed by a federal court in California provide a glimpse into Meta's strategies to outperform competitors such as Snapchat, and later on, Amazon and YouTube.
The encryption methods used by these platforms required Facebook to create specific technology to overcome encryption obstacles.
A single document describes Project Ghostbusters as a component of Facebook's In-App Action Panel (IAPP) initiative, using methods to capture and decode encrypted application data from Snapchat, and subsequently from YouTube and Amazon users.
Emails from within Facebook's executive team, including from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, highlight the firm's resolve to gather analytical data on Snapchat, even with its encrypted traffic.
Facebook's engineers suggested utilizing Onavo, a service similar to VPN that Facebook purchased in 2013, to carry out the project. However, in 2019, Onavo was discontinued after it was discovered that it was collecting data from teenagers.
The suggested resolution entailed implementing kits on iOS and Android gadgets, capturing data for particular subdomains to gauge in-app activity — a technique commonly known as a "man-in-the-middle" strategy.
This method enabled Facebook to tap into unencrypted network traffic prior to its encryption, thereby simplifying the process of measuring detailed in-app activities.
Nonetheless, there were objections within Facebook, notably from Jay Parikh, who was the chief of infrastructure engineering at the time, and Pedro Canahuati, who was leading the security engineering department. They raised issues about the ethical and safety consequences of Project Ghostbusters.
Canahuati emphasized unease about the absence of approval from the masses and the moral issues raised by these data gathering methods.
In 2020, Sarah Grabert and Maximilian Klein lodged a collective legal action against Facebook, accusing the firm of misleading its users regarding its data gathering actions. It was alleged that the social media giant used the collected data to spot rivals and unjustly compete with budding businesses. These disclosures intensify the examination of Facebook's data handling methods and provoke concerns about the moral limits of data accumulation and rivalry in the technology sector.
(Incorporating information from various sources)
Look for us on YouTube
Headline Programs
Connected Articles
TikTok's US predicament intensifies, with the FTC expected to sue for the inappropriate management of children's data privacy and security
Meta plans to deactivate an essential tool for monitoring misinformation prior to significant US elections
Apple, Google, and Meta are some of the inaugural tech firms to be scrutinized under the EU's fresh Digital Markets Act
Meta is unable to prevent child predators from utilizing Messenger, Pay to purchase child sexual abuse content
TikTok's situation in the US is escalating, with the FTC predicted to take legal action due to the careless handling of children's data privacy and security
Meta has intentions to suspend a vital tool for tracking misinformation before crucial US elections
Apple, Google, and Meta are among the first technology companies to undergo investigation under the EU's new Digital Markets Act
Meta is unsuccessful in stopping pedophiles from making use of Messenger, Pay to acquire child sexual abuse material
can be found on YouTube
Firstpost holds exclusive rights and privileges © 2024.
+ There are no comments
Add yours