Facebook takes legal action against Israeli firm for alleged data collection

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is taking legal action against Israeli surveillance company Voyager Labs for allegedly collecting data from 600,000 users without their consent.

The lawsuit claims that the company created tens of thousands of fake accounts to access data from various social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

According to The Guardian, Facebook had already deleted 38,000 fake profiles set up by Voyager Labs. The Israeli firm has offices in multiple countries and conducts research and development through a subsidiary in Israel.

The lawsuit alleges that Voyager Labs used surveillance software to collect data, including posts, likes, friends, photos, comments, and information from groups and pages, from users on social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Telegram. Meta discovered these activities in July 2022.

This legal action is part of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to combat the digital spying and surveillance industry. The suit also brings attention to a market of unknown companies that specialize in extracting information from social networks, of which Voyager Labs is a part.

The lawsuit against Voyager Labs highlights the wider industry of data scraping and surveillance in which Israel is a major player.