In the midst of a lawsuit against Meta, documents have been made public that reveal the extent of Facebook’s efforts to analyze Snapchat’s encrypted traffic. The emails exchanged between Mark Zuckerberg, senior executives and security managers detail how Facebook planned to use cyberespionage techniques to track user behavior on its rival application.
The email exchange began in June 2016, when Snapchat was gaining momentum and reaching 148 million users in just six months. Facebook, losing steam with new generations and Instagram at risk, launched Instagram Stories as a response. This move proved successful and shifted the landscape.
The documents unveil a project called IAAP (Instagram Analytics and Advertising Platform), nicknamed Ghostbusters, aimed at analyzing Snapchat’s traffic. Facebook users were encouraged to install a kit that collected data on their digital activity in other apps, enabling Facebook to analyze user behavior on Snapchat.
The project was based on technology from Onavo, a VPN application acquired by Facebook in 2013. It used cyberespionage techniques to intercept user traffic from various websites, not just Snapchat. The documents show a complex monitoring scheme that allowed Facebook to view user activity on these platforms.
Despite objections from the security manager and other executives about the legality and ethics of such actions, Facebook deployed the project for three years. The documents detail how Facebook distorted the process of connecting to websites in order to intercept and analyze user traffic.
Facebook used a modified Facebook application to collect and analyze user data even from encrypted traffic, allowing them to track user behavior on Snapchat and other platforms. This raised concerns about privacy and security violations
