Facebook to shut down its controversial market research app on iOS

TechCrunch

It’s been evident in the past few months that Facebook isn’t the champion for its users’ privacy and data. And it seems the company has reached a new kind of low in the name of market research purposes.

TechCrunch reported on Tuesday that Facebook has been paying volunteers aged 13 to 35 monthly US$20 gift cards for near-total access to data from their phones. They needed to install an app called Facebook Research on iOS and Android, which monitors phone and web activity and sends this back to Facebook. The app needs users to install custom root certificate, which gives Facebook access to the volunteers’ information. Apple has called foul and says Facebook is violating Apple’s policy. The social network responds by taking it out of iOS—but it’ll remain available for Android users.

Facebook had a similar app using Onavo Protect, which was a VPN service they acquired in 2013. It used data to identify up-and-coming competitors, then acquire or clone them. It was taken off the App Store last summer because Apple complained this violated App Store’s guidelines on data collection. Facebook denied that this was a replacement for that app, but it didn’t respond to The Verge when it was pointed out the apps shared similar code.

The company also wanted to object to parts of TechCrunch’s report, saying, “Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing ‘secret’ about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App. It wasn’t ‘spying’ as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate. Finally, less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms.”