Activities
Divisions
Performances
Activities
Divisions
Performances
Project Ghostbusters: Meta's surveillance on users' Snapchat activity to devise a rival plan
Meta has been closely observing its users' Snapchat information by intercepting and decoding the data exchanged between users' devices and Snapchat’s servers. This initiative, known as "Project Ghostbusters," was primarily aimed at understanding users' Snapchat habits to develop a competing platform.
Newly disclosed legal papers from a nationwide lawsuit involving customers and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, reveal a clandestine operation started by Facebook in 2016. The purpose of this operation was to intercept and decode the network communication between Snapchat users and its servers.
Termed as "Project Ghostbusters," the initiative was designed to understand user patterns and strengthen Facebook's competitive position against Snapchat.
Legal papers, disclosed by a Californian federal court, provide glimpses into Meta's strategies to outperform competitors such as Snapchat, and subsequent rivals including Amazon and YouTube.
Due to the encryption used by these platforms, Facebook had to create specific technology to overcome encryption obstacles.
A single record describes Project Ghostbusters as a component of Facebook's In-App Action Panel (IAPP) scheme, utilizing methods to decode and capture 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 commitment to gather analytical data on Snapchat, despite its secure traffic.
Facebook's engineers suggested using Onavo, a service similar to VPN that Facebook bought in 2013, to carry out the project. However, Onavo was closed in 2019 after its data gathering methods, particularly among teenagers, were exposed.
The suggested resolution entailed implementing kits on iOS and Android gadgets, monitoring traffic for certain subdomains to gauge in-app activity — a technique known as a "man-in-the-middle" strategy.
This method enabled Facebook to gain access to unsecured network traffic prior to its encryption, thus making it easier to measure detailed in-app activity.
Nevertheless, there were opposing opinions within Facebook, including those from Jay Parikh, who was then in charge of infrastructure engineering, and Pedro Canahuati, who led security engineering at that time. They raised concerns about the moral and security consequences of Project Ghostbusters.
Canahuati underlined the unease concerning the absence of approval from the general populace and the moral issues raised by such data gathering methods.
In 2020, Sarah Grabert and Maximilian Klein lodged a collective lawsuit against Facebook. They claimed that Facebook had misled its users regarding its data gathering procedures, used this extracted data to single out its rivals, and engaged in unjust competition against budding companies. These disclosures draw more attention to Facebook's data handling methods and prompt inquiries about the moral limits of data accumulation and rivalry in the technology sector.
(Incorporating information from various sources)
Look for us on YouTube
Highlight Reel
Associated Reports
TikTok's issues in the US are escalating, with a potential lawsuit from the FTC for improperly managing children's data privacy and security
Meta plans to disable a significant tool that monitors misinformation prior to significant US elections
Apple, Google, and Meta are among the first tech firms to be investigated under the new Digital Markets Act of the EU
Meta is unable to prevent child predators from using Messenger and Pay to purchase child sexual abuse material
TikTok's issues in the US continue to escalate, with the FTC likely to sue for improper handling of children's data privacy and security
Meta is preparing to shut down a vital misinformation monitoring tool ahead of major US elections
Tech giants Apple, Google, and Meta are among the first to face scrutiny under the EU's newly enacted Digital Markets Act
Meta is struggling to prevent child predators from using its platforms Messenger and Pay to acquire child sexual abuse material
can be found on YouTube.
All rights reserved by Firstpost, copyright © 2024.
+ There are no comments
Add yours