https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/06/08/global-sting-fbi-run-messaging-app-tricks-organized-crime/7601886002/ANOM, the FBI's encrypted device company, was used by more than 300 criminal organizations in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe that unknowingly communicated about narcotics shipments and exchanged incriminating pictures, including ones showing cocaine hidden in food shipments, according to the Justice Department.
Eight hundred have been arrested from around the world. Several tons of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine have been seized, as well as different currencies totaling $48 million, officials said.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Trojan Shield, began after the FBI dismantled a Canadian encryption device company in 2018 and forced criminals to find other ways to communicate. The FBI and the Australian Police Force created ANOM, which officials said was similar to the blind carbon copy email function. Every text message, photo, and audio sent through the platform – more than 27 million in all – was collected and stored in a server and reviewed by the FBI.**
**So, that's a whole hell of a lot of collateral damage for privacy advocates who just had their nightmare come true. Imagine using an app because you think it is secure only to find out that it automatically CC'd some FBI database to be sifted through in hopes of finding a crime.
A pcmag.com article for further reading
