Meta sues surveillance company for scraping data with fake Facebook accounts
by Jess Weatherbed from The Verge - All Posts on (#67SM9)
Meta claims to have disabled over 60,000 fake Facebook and Instagram accounts used by Voyager Labs. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta has filed a legal complaint against a company for allegedly creating tens of thousands of fake Facebook accounts to scrape user data and provide surveillance services for clients.
The firm, Voyager Labs, bills itself as a world leader in advanced AI-based investigation solutions." What this means in practice is analyzing social media posts en masse in order to make claims about individuals. In 2021, for example, The Guardian reported how Voyager Labs sold its services to the Los Angeles Police Department, with the company claiming to predict which individuals were likely to commit crimes in the future.
Voyager Labs is accused of creating over 38,000 fake Facebook user accounts to scrape data
Meta announced the legal action in a...