Facebook Accused of Using Your Phone To Wiretap Snapchat (gizmodo.com)
- Reference: 0173389695
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/03/26/186217/facebook-accused-of-using-your-phone-to-wiretap-snapchat
- Source link: https://gizmodo.com/project-ghostbusters-facebook-meta-wiretap-snapchat-1851366093
> Meta did so through Onavo, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service the company offered between 2016 and 2019 that, ultimately, wasn't private at all. "Whenever someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because their traffic is encrypted we have no analytics about them," said Mark Zuckerberg in an email to three Facebook executives in 2016, unsealed in Meta's antitrust case on Saturday. "It seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them... You should figure out how to do this."
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> Thus, Project Ghostbusters was born. It's Meta's in-house wiretapping tool to spy on data analytics from Snapchat starting in 2016, later used on YouTube and Amazon. This involved creating "kits" that can be installed on iOS and Android devices, to intercept traffic for certain apps, according to the filings. This was described as a "man-in-the-middle" approach to get data on Facebook's rivals, but users of Onavo were the "men in the middle."
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> Meta's Onavo unit has a history of using invasive techniques to collect data on Facebook's users. Meta acquired Onavo from an Israeli firm over 10 years ago, promising users private networking, as most VPNs do. However, the service was reportedly used to spy on rival social media apps through tens of millions of people who downloaded Onavo. It gave Facebook valuable intel about competitors, and this week's court filings seem to confirm that. A team of senior executives and roughly 41 lawyers worked on Project Ghostbusters, according to court filings. The group was heavily concerned with whether to continue the program in the face of press scrutiny. Facebook ultimately shut down Onavo in 2019 after Apple booted the VPN from its app store.
[1] https://gizmodo.com/project-ghostbusters-facebook-meta-wiretap-snapchat-1851366093
Using powers for evil (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who worked at Facebook and contributed to this project should be blacklisted. Using technical knowledge to assist evil is always an ethically negative proposition and we should have zero tolerance for it.
Working in tech used to be cool but now it's just like finance. Dominated by sociopaths with zero principles that believe stealing money from people is OK as long as you can make some half-assed argument to blame it on the victim. i
You're too hung up on individuals (Score:3)
It's because you're a tech nerd and us tech nerds love concept of individuals pulling off all sorts of cool shit using computers.
This isn't something that can be solved in an individual level it's a systemic problem. It represents decades of pro corporate shifts in attitudes and beliefs.
You need to understand that one of the things that corporations do is they spread the actions and blame around to so many people while also protecting those people from legal consequences.
That can be a good thing w
My comment from yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
[1] Is especially relevant here, [slashdot.org] You shouldn't be using a VPN that neither you nor your employer control. The attack vector of compromise of the VPN provider (or it being plain malicious as it is here) is far worse than the near-useless-in-2024 security benefits of using a commercial VPN provider.
Still, marketing persists and tech people cling to their NordVPN!
[1] https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23269157&cid=64343317
Looks like lawsuits from individuals possible (Score:2)
This would be a nightmare for Facebook if everyone filed individual federal lawsuits over this under the CFAA. Facebook seems to have checked all the boxes on this:
> Federal law regarding unauthorized use of a computing device primarily falls under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is a United States cybersecurity law. Under the CFAA, there are several requirements that must generally be met to sue someone for unauthorized use of a computing device:
> 1. Access without authorization: The defe
They trust me (Score:2)
They trust me, the dumb fucks.
1. I'm not surprised.
2. Little people would have been threatened with 1000 years in the kind of rape torture prisons that America likes to specialize in order to get them to plead guilty to something that will merely destroy their life completely.
At most, Meta will at most get a small fine put down to the cost of doing business.
So Zuck's going to jail, right? (Score:2)
Evil cyber criminal boss having his minions perform illegal wiretapping in millions of cases.
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, but he'll be spending what is to him a trivial amount of money having his legal department come up with a reason the courts should ignore this.
Re: (Score:2)
Best they can do is get Martha Stewart for selling some stocks and Tommy Chong selling rolling papers via mail.
Thank goodness.. (Score:2, Troll)
Imagine if that had ben tik tok .... but is OK because it is the Americans spying on you and breaching your privacy.
This keeps happening until the state nuts up. (Score:2)
Court settlements are literally bribes for an offender to keep doing what they're doing, so nothing changes until offers are refused short of reform.
Buying a VPN service from Zuckerberg (Score:2)
is like getting financial advice from Sam Bankman Fried: how did those people even think this was legit?
If an individual did this... (Score:5, Interesting)
If an individual did this...They'd have the book thrown at them for hacking and a plethora of charges would be levied against them.
Why are we not seeing the Feds jumping all over this with the DOJ immediately?!?.
Re: (Score:1)
He's a Satanist. Stop trying to make every stupid fucking conversation about your stupid fucking holy war.
Re: (Score:2)
Zionism isn't a religion. You can be both a Satanist and a Zionist (at the same time, even!)
Zuck is a privacy rapist (Score:2)
> I'm sure Zuckerberg being a Zionist, New Yorker and Democrat party member has nothing to with this.
He's none of those. He's a privacy rapist.
Re: (Score:1)
So you just demonstrated that rich republicans and rich democrats receive different treatment from regular folks.
Re: (Score:2)
Except that they don't. Bankman-fried is being sentenced this week. And Trump is facing severe legitimate legal troubles. So on non-elected, non-appointed, non-affiliated but somehow scary rich Democrat likely seeing jail time, and one previously high ranking possibly-rich Republican (in name) with a high chance of conviction. I'd say that the system is working.
The snag is not that the sytem lets off rich people, but that rich people usually can afford good lawyers. Poor people have bad lawyers or court
Re: (Score:2)
You know that Bankman-fried was found guilty, right? And his sentencing is in two days, right? Good thing you posted anonymously, you must be embarrassed now.
Because the courts are packed (Score:2)
With pro corporate right wing judges. Do a little bit of googling and you will find that an outfit called The heritage foundation has spent the last 40 years on a large scale project to install right wing judges favorable to large corporations.
The program began after Barry Goldwater lost his election and the right wing in America regrouped and changed its tactics. Goldwater himself warned us about it and about the new wave of the American right wing. We didn't listen and here we are.
Re: (Score:1)
One count of wiretapping and one count of wire fraud per instance of interception.
Oh, and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act charges.
For everyone involved.
No, wait - he's the third largest Democrat donor. Nevermind - Dish got their charges dropped last week for just a $130,000 donation to the Biden campaign.
And people think I'm odd for having a separate phone for secret-source apps!
Re: (Score:2)
No, wait - he's the third largest Democrat donor.
Yeah because the Republicans are sooo good at reigning in corporations.
How about you pull your head out of your arse, stop cheering for a political party like a sports team and recognize that this is a massive, bipartisan problem.
Re: (Score:3)
> Why are we not seeing the Feds jumping all over this with the DOJ immediately?!?.
While it might be about money, as others have suggested, I think there is an alternative suggestion: Meta/Facebook is too cooperative with providing data to the FBI/CIA and the DoJ doesn't want to risk that relationship.