A federal court in California has unveiled fresh documents alleging that Meta Platforms, led by Mark Zuckerberg, engaged in surveillance of users on Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon.
Reportedly, Facebook launched a secret initiative called 'Project Ghostbusters' in 2016 to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat's app and its servers.
According to court documents, the initiative was crafted to comprehend user behaviour and secure a competitive edge against Snapchat.
Additionally, in a June 9, 2016, internal email, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg underscored the importance of acquiring analytics on Snapchat despite its encrypted traffic.
Zuckerberg's request was fulfilled by Onavo, a contentious VPN service purchased by Facebook in 2013. However, it was shut down six years later due to revelations of Facebook's secret payments to teenagers for monitoring their web activity.
Later on, the scope of the project was broadened to encompass Amazon and YouTube. Court filings indicate that a team consisting of senior executives and approximately 41 lawyers was involved in Project Ghostbusters.
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