A leaked manual for an online investigations platform from surveillance company Blackdot Solutions teaches users how to make Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and hide them from detection by monitors.

Motherboard on Tuesday, September 22, released a report about Cambridge-based Blackdot Solutions and its open source intelligence tool, called Videris.

The Videris manual, which appeared to be from September 2018, guides users on the process of making fake accounts that would allow them to remain anonymous while collecting publicly available data on those platforms.

Some of the recommendations in the guide included making a new Gmail account, linking it to a new phone number, and also using a proxy server to bypass any potential banning by Facebook and LinkedIn’s monitoring systems.

The Videris manual also stated, “After intense periods of data collection, certain data providers have been known to restrict the access of online accounts used by Videris. Videris automatically detects restrictions and disables affected accounts, removing them from use.”

Blackdot has stressed, however, a user’s personal responsibility for their actions, noting how Videris has no functionality for befriending people on Facebook, but rather is designed to establish whether individuals are connected.

Blackdot also clarified that Videris only seeks publicly available information and is only an aid. Users could also do what Videris does by logging into social networks and finding the information they want manually.

In an update, Vice added Videris’ user agreement stated the “customer is responsible for all activities conducted under its and its Users’ use of Videris.”

Customers are also told to not use Videris in a way that is “infringing the intellectual property rights of a third party.”

Demonstration

A person who saw a Videris demonstration and asked to remain anonymous because they were not allowed to speak to the press told Motherboard, “The surface part of the program was typical but I noticed the use of fake social media accounts and did not think that aligned with company values.”

The person added, “The fake accounts were against social media platform policy and used algorithms to unravel private networks, which seemed like an invasion of privacy.”

Adam Lawrance-Owen, Blackdot’s head of product, told Motherboard in an email, “Videris does not unravel private networks. It can’t do anything that users couldn’t do themselves if they were to log into social networks in the normal way.”

Lawrance-Owen added, “The advantage of our software is twofold. It allows for more effective investigations to help catch fraudsters, money-launderers and terrorists. And it allows those investigations to be carried out in the most secure and discreet way possible, which is absolutely essential when dealing with these sorts of matters.”

“A core principle of Videris as a product, and a fundamental ethical and business principle for our company, is that the user can access publicly available, open source information only. Videris cannot be used to go behind privacy settings, as your email suggests. None of our customers use, or could use, Videris for such a purpose,” added Lawrance-Owen in a separate email to Motherboard.

Motherboard showed Lawrance-Owen the portion of the manual referencing the guide on making fake accounts, to which he replied he had “not seen this document before and it certainly isn’t our user manual.”

After showing him the full document, Lawrance-Owen said he could not “really comment on the document you attach, except to tell you that, while it references our functionality, it isn’t our standard user guide. I wasn’t aware of this document and it also appears to be two years old.”

Lawrance-Owen reiterated that Videris “does not and cannot break privacy settings.” – Rappler.com

Editor’s note: The following story has been updated with further context from Blackdot Solutions.