Facebook Spied on Users’ Snapchat Traffic in a Covert Operation, Documents Reveal

In 2016, Facebook initiated a secret initiative to intercept and decrypt network traffic between Snapchat users and the company’s servers. According to recently revealed court filings, the purpose was to better analyse user behaviour and help Facebook compete with Snapchat. Facebook dubbed it “Project Ghostbusters,” an apparent homage to Snapchat’s ghost-like emblem.

On Tuesday of this week, a federal court in California disclosed fresh documents acquired during the class action case between consumers and Meta, Facebook’s parent company.

The newly revealed documents show how Meta attempted to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors, namely Snapchat and later Amazon and YouTube, by analysing network traffic to see how its users interacted with Meta’s competitors. Given that these apps use encryption, Facebook had to design specific technology to get around it.

Facebook’s Project Ghostbusters is described in one of the documents. In the letter, the customers’ attorneys stated that the project was a part of the company’s In-App Action Panel (IAPP) programme, which employed a meth

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