report from TechCrunch asserts that Facebook's 'Project Ghostbusters' aimed to understand user behaviour and surpass Snapchat in terms of competition. Internal discussions among Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, revealed efforts to access Snapchat's encrypted data for analytics.

The project expanded to include monitoring traffic from Amazon and YouTube as well. The court documents revealed that some senior executives along with a team of approximately 41 lawyers were involved in 'Project Ghostbusters,' illustrating the significance of the initiative within Facebook.

federal court in California has uncovered evidence accusing Meta Platforms of secretly monitoring users of Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon.

The court documents reveal Facebook's covert project named 'Project Ghostbusters,' which was reportedly launched in 2016.

Facebook engineers suggested using Onavo, a Virtual Private Network service acquired in 2013, to intercept and analyse traffic from specific subdomains. This revelation sheds light on Facebook's strategic efforts to gather competitive intelligence and enhance its market position relative to Snapchat.

#Facebook #Meta

@ecksmc this is just nuts.

@ecksmc Technically, you give them permission to do exactly that when you install any Meta app on your device. #sadbuttrue

@ecksmc 😮

I have facebook, messenger and instagram on a separate mini-iPad, which has a separate apple id than my phone. I only use that ipad for those apps. (And sometimes allrecipes) Does that thwart their snooping?

@AverageCitizen

The wiretapping tool involved the company’s Onavo Virtual Private Network (VPN), which Facebook acquired from an Israeli firm in 2013 but is no longer in use.

That VPN service acquired by Facebook in 2013, which shut down six years later after it was found that Facebook secretly paid teenagers to use the service in order to access their web activity

that was called project Atlas

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/facebook-project-atlas/

@AverageCitizen

In the case of Project Ghostbusters, the Onavo team proposed technology to intercept traffic for specific subdomains, that could be installed on both iOS and Android. These "kits" allowed Facebook to intercept encrypted data.

The project was a part of the company's In-App Action Panel (IAPP), a program run between 2016 and 2019

So you are all good now - other than their "normal" tracking that they use - guide to stop that here

https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-turn-off-facebook-tracking

@ecksmc I have it locked down as much as possible. With so much family still using it, I can’t really delete it yet. I sure don’t post much there anymore though, just a few kid pics when they have a major event.