Surveillance Firm Banjo Used a Secret Company and Fake Apps to Scrape Social Media

One former employee said the secret company called Pink Unicorn Labs was doing the same thing as Cambridge Analytica, “but more nefariously, arguably.”

Banjo, an artificial intelligence firm that works with police used a shadow company to create an array of Android and iOS apps that looked innocuous but were specifically designed to secretly scrape social media. This was done to avoid detection by social networks. The news signifies an abuse of data by a government contractor, with Banjo going far beyond what companies which scrape social networks usually do.

Source: Surveillance Firm Banjo Used a Secret Company and Fake Apps to Scrape Social Media – VICE