In newly unsealed court documents from a class-action lawsuit against Meta, it’s been revealed that Facebook launched a covert project, dubbed “Project Ghostbusters,” in 2016, aiming to intercept and decrypt network traffic between Snapchat users and servers.
The documents disclosed Meta’s efforts to gain insights into users’ behavior on competitor platforms like Snapchat, Amazon, and YouTube.
Using techniques like intercepting and decrypting encrypted app traffic, Meta sought to level the playing field with its rivals.
One internal email from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlights the urgency to understand Snapchat’s growth trajectory, stating, “Given how quickly they’re growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them.”
Facebook engineers turned to Onavo, a VPN-like service acquired by Facebook in 2013, to execute the project.
Onavo’s capabilities allowed Meta to access unencrypted network traffic, facilitating detailed in-app activity analysis.
However, not all within Facebook were on board with the project.
Concerns were raised by employees, including Jay Parikh, former head of infrastructure engineering, and Pedro Canahuati, former head of security engineering, who expressed discomfort with the approach.
The revelations surfaced from a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 by Sarah Grabert and Maximilian Klein against Facebook, alleging deceptive data collection practices.
