Facebook bought a VPN for $200 million. The app was called Onavo. it promised to "keep you and your data safe" and "block dangerous websites." Buried in the small print: "Onavo collects your mobile data traffic. Because we're part of Facebook, we use this to improve Facebook products." Meaning Facebook could see every app you opened, how long you used it, and how much data it consumed. all of it flowing through their VPN. Feeding their competitor intelligence operation. Zuckerberg's internal emails showed he was specifically worried about Snapchat. its traffic was encrypted. Facebook couldn't see what was happening inside it. Onavo solved that. Unsealed court documents revealed Project Ghostbusters. Facebook used Onavo's infrastructure to run SSL man-in-the-middle attacks on Snapchat's encrypted traffic, they decrypted it, read it and used it to inform product decisions. and when Apple forced Onavo off the App Store in 2018 for data collection violations: Facebook didn't stop, they rebranded it "Facebook Research" and paid teenagers between 13 and 25 up to $20 a month to install it and grant root network access to their phones, recruited via ads on Instagram and Snapchat. Apple found out and banned that too. Facebook's statement: "market research helps companies build better products."