← Back to database

Predaxia Research

Voyager Labs

Voyager Labs · Israel

ActiveMeta lawsuit 2023
3

Confidence 3/5

VendorVoyager Labs Ltd.
Country of originIsrael (Herzliya). US operations in New York
Founded2012
Current statusActive
US Entity ListNo
Notable customersNYPD (per NYCLU 2021), US LE, multiple non-US government customers
Legal exposureMeta v. Voyager Labs (US District Court Northern District of California, filed January 2023)
Predaxia GlossaryWhat it means in practicePlain-English explainer · Threat model · Action steps

Technical capabilities

Voyager Labs sells social-media-monitoring and OSINT-analytics platforms for government, intelligence, and corporate customers. The product collects from public and accessible social-media data, news sources, court records, and proprietary feeds, then applies entity-resolution, sentiment-analysis and network-analysis to support investigative and intelligence workflows.

Voyager states that it does not engage in unauthorized account creation or scraping. The January 2023 Meta complaint alleges otherwise, claiming that Voyager created and maintained more than 38,000 fake user accounts on Facebook and Instagram to access non-public data, in violation of Meta’s terms of service and US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act provisions.

Documented use

  • New York Police Department: usage disclosed in November 2021 by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Brennan Center for Justice through Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests. NYPD had contracted Voyager Labs from 2018 to 2020 without disclosed oversight.
  • Los Angeles Police Department: contract disclosed in 2021 reporting by The Guardian.
  • Brazilian Federal Police, Polish CBA, Greek and Swiss security services: reported customers per company marketing and public procurement records.
  • Various US federal agencies: contracts identified through USAspending.gov disclosures.

Customer states

Public reporting identifies confirmed customers in the United States, Brazil, Poland, Greece, Switzerland, Israel and other jurisdictions. The vendor states compliance with Israeli DECA export controls. Independent verification of customer behavior is limited.

Legal and sanctions status

  • Not on the US Department of Commerce Entity List.
  • Not designated by US OFAC.
  • Meta Platforms Inc. v. Voyager Labs Ltd. (US District Court Northern District of California, filed January 12, 2023): ongoing litigation alleging violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and breach of contract.
  • Named in the Meta Threat Report on the Surveillance-for-Hire Industry (December 2021) cluster of commercial actors.
  • Subject to Israeli DECA export controls.

Technical countermeasures

  • Reduce public social-media footprint: Voyager-class tools build on publicly accessible and accessible-via-fake-account data. Limit public visibility settings and review historical posts.
  • Account hygiene: hardware-key two-factor authentication, periodic session-token revocation, and reviewing connected apps reduce the surface for unauthorized access.
  • Compartmented identities: maintain separation between activist, professional, and personal social accounts. Avoid cross-linking through shared email addresses or phone numbers.
  • Adversarial OPSEC for sensitive workflows: assume sustained OSINT monitoring of public-facing accounts by motivated adversaries. Operationally sensitive activity belongs in encrypted, off-platform channels.
  • Platform reporting: report suspected scraping accounts to platform trust and safety teams.
For at-risk individuals. OSINT tools like Voyager Labs cannot collect what is not exposed. Social-media privacy hygiene is the foundational defense. Any sensitive workflow should never touch a public-facing account in the first place.

Sources

  1. Meta Platforms Inc. v. Voyager Labs Ltd., Complaint (US District Court Northern District of California, January 12, 2023)
  2. Brennan Center for Justice, NYPD use of Voyager Labs (November 2021)
  3. The Guardian, LAPD uses Voyager Labs for social-media monitoring (November 2021)
  4. NYCLU, NYPD surveillance technology disclosures
  5. Meta, Threat Report on the Surveillance-for-Hire Industry (December 2021)
  6. USAspending.gov, Federal contract records for Voyager Labs

Update log

May 11, 2026: Page added. Sourced from the Meta complaint of January 2023, Brennan Center for Justice and NYCLU FOIL disclosures of NYPD usage, The Guardian reporting on LAPD, the Meta Surveillance-for-Hire Threat Report of December 2021, and USAspending federal contract records.

There’s no perfect setup. Anyone selling you perfect is selling fear. The goal is simple: make yourself a harder target than the person next to you.