There are many programs that are responsible for automatically browsing the Internet in search of personal data of people. This is how emails, telephone numbers and names are obtained, ideal information for spam campaigns and various attacks.
This “data scraping” can be transformed into a practically professional activity, since there are many companies dedicated only to it.
Now Meta has decided to legally sue a company and a person.
On the one hand, the company Octopus, a US subsidiary of a Chinese multinational technology company, offered this service to individuals and other companies. It sells software that anyone can use for data collection campaigns, and it does so by hacking into Facebook and Instagram accounts. The program provides user information, all the accessible data of that individual, and then manages to enter the accounts to obtain phone numbers, dates of birth and other personal information about each Facebook and Instagram friend. Meta alleges that Octopus violated their terms of service.
On the other hand, it has sued a person who used automated Instagram accounts to collect information on more than 350,000 users, publishing that data in a series of cloned sites from where it was possible to see the information of these people without their consent. Meta already sent a cease and desist letter, but so far it hasn’t helped much.
This is not the first time that Meta has used legal action to prevent this information theft, as it did so in 2020 against a Turkish citizen who deleted more than 100,000 Instagram profiles.
