Meta Platforms, led by Mark Zuckerberg, stands accused of orchestrating a clandestine endeavour dubbed ‘Project Ghostbusters,’ with the alleged aim of intercepting and deciphering the network traffic of Snapchat users. The project, initiated in 2016, sought to unravel user behaviour patterns, providing Meta with a competitive edge against Snapchat and other industry rivals.

TechCrunch reported on Tuesday, citing recently unsealed court documents from an ongoing class-action lawsuit between consumers and Meta, Facebook’s parent company.

According to these documents, Project Ghostbusters operated within Facebook’s In-App Action Panel (IAPP) program, utilizing techniques to intercept and decrypt encrypted app traffic from Snapchat users initially, later extending its scope to include users of Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Amazon.

The engineering team at Facebook purportedly employed Onavo, a service akin to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) acquired by Facebook in 2013, to bypass encryption protocols. Subsequently, the project’s scope broadened to encompass Amazon and YouTube. Internal communications, including an email dated June 9, 2016, attributed to Zuckerberg, reveal discussions surrounding the need for alternative analytics methods due to Snapchat’s encryption hindering traditional data collection avenues. Zuckerberg’s email suggested exploring novel approaches to gather reliable analytics on Snapchat’s burgeoning user base.

Following Zuckerberg’s directive, the Onavo team assumed responsibility for Project Ghostbusters. Approximately a month later, they proposed the development of kits installable on iOS and Android platforms. These kits aimed to intercept traffic for specific subdomains, allowing for the analysis of in-app usage typically obscured by encryption. Described as a ‘man-in-the-middle’ approach, an email from July 2016 outlined the technical methodology behind the initiative.

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