Facebook under fire again; Paid teens to install data collecting App
The Social Media giant Facebook has come under fire again for paying mainly teenagers to install an app that allows it to collect data on how they use their smartphones.
Facebook began the program from 2016 and pays teenagers and adults up to $20 a month plus referral fees to install the App on Apple or Android phones.
The App is called Facebook Research App and to mask Facebook direct involvement, the App is administered through beta testing services like Applause, BetaBound, and uTest and is referred to as Project Atlas.
According to reports from some technology experts, the App allows Facebook to collect data that included private social media messages, photos, and videos sent via instant messaging apps, emails, web searches and web browsing activites. The App can also track ongoing location information from other location tracking Apps that are installed on the user’s phone
However, a Facebook spokesperson did not only acknowledge the reports of Facebook running Project Atlas but that has paid users for their participation.
“Like many companies, we invite people to participate in research that helps us identify things we can be doing better,”
“Since this research is aimed at helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices, we’ve provided extensive information about the type of data we collect and how they can participate.”
“We don’t share this information with others and people can stop participating at any time,”
the spokesperson said.
Facebook is now pulling the App from all Apple devices since it could be a violation of Apple’s policy since many of its users are participating in the program. However, the App will remain available for Android users.
A Facebook Spokesperson speaking about the App said the key facts about the research program has been ignored.
“Since this research is aimed at helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices, we’ve provided extensive information about the type of data we collect and how they can participate.”
“We don’t share this information with others and people can stop participating at any time,”
“It wasn’t ‘spying’ as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear onboarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate.”
Facebook, admitted that teenagers had participated in the program but less than 5 percent of the participants were in their teens and “All of them signed parental consent forms,”
Apple is reacting to the news has revoked some developer privileges from Facebook.
A spokesperson of Apple said that Facebook violates its policy by distributing
“a data-collecting app to consumers.” Apple has revoked Facebook’s “enterprise certificates” that let it distribute the activity-tracking app to users”.
“We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple,” the spokesperson added.
In 2018, Apple removed the Facebooks Onavo security App form the Apple play store because it was collecting information about other apps that are installed on a user’s device, which is an outright violation of Apple’s policy.