Facebook used veterans of Israeli intel group to spy on users

Social media giant Facebook has deployed Israeli firm Onavo to spy on users with the aim of destroying competition and gathering user data.   

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the scandal, which has attracted a lawsuit in the US, involves veterans of Israel's cyber intel group, Unit 820, who founded Onavo in 2010. Facebook bought Onavo in 2013.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenged the social media giant by filing a lawsuit against Onavo and claimed that the Israeli company was key to Facebook’s efforts to thwart its competitors.

The FTC called Onavo a "user surveillance company," claiming that Facebook used the company to gather information about rival social media with an aim to determine which ones posed a threat to their business in the long run and to undercut them before they got too influential.

Following the incident, concerns have peaked and questions have come to the fore about online security and the unregulated manner in which data is being gathered.

In 2008, Apple removed the Onavo Protect application from its online application store which meant to provide a “secure connection” for people while using Facebook. 

Apple discovered Onavo’s violations of its privacy policy by collecting information about iPhone users and their online usage of apps that don't belong to Facebook.

Also in 2018, the British parliament revealed internal documents about Facebook which showed that the company was monitoring users to learn how to deal with its potential rivals. 

The 200 pages of documents revealed by the British parliament included email conversations between 2012 and 2015 in which the officials of Facebook were discussing how to preserve Onavo’s ability to gather information about the unsuspecting users of the app. 

Israeli newspaper Haaretz’s report also revealed that Onavo’s owners are the veterans of Israeli Defence Forces’ intel, Unit 8200. 

According to the Financial Times, Unit 8200 is "a high-tech incubator that trains some of Israel's smartest young people but effectively excludes minority Arabs — 20 percent of Israel's population — because so few do military service, which is compulsory for Jewish Israelis."

Unit 8200 is an Israeli military’s legendary high-tech spy agency which is considered by intelligence analysts to be one of the most formidable of its kind in the world. It is the equivalent of America’s National Security Agency and the largest single military unit in the Israel Defence Forces.

The report in the Financial Times says Recruits to the unit "snoop on Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank or naval and air blockade in the Gaza Strip."

In its report, the newspaper cited Israeli sources who said that the members of Unit 8200 used "coercive spying tactics" on innocent Palestinians, for the collection of embarrassing sexual, financial or other information. 

Moreover, recently, some other reports emerged to suggest that Australia is also suing Facebook because of its use of Onavo in 2016 and 2017 to spy on users for commercial matters.

According to the US-based TechCrunch newspaper, Australia Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) chair Rod Sims said; "Through Onavo Protect, Facebook was collecting and using the very detailed and valuable personal activity data of thousands of Australian consumers for its own commercial purposes, which we believe is completely contrary to the promise of protection, secrecy and privacy that was central to Facebook's promotion of this app."