On Tuesday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” app that lets the company vacuum up all of a user’s phone and web activity.
Now, Apple has banned the research app, saying Facebook violated its privacy guidelines that were strictly set last summer.
Fool Apple once…
Since 2016, Facebook has been paying users ages 13 to 35 up to $20 per month plus referral fees to sell their privacy by installing the “Facebook Research” app on their phones.
The program, which tracks how people use its own services and services of competitors, is reportedly a rewritten version of the Onavo software that Apple forced Facebook to pull from the app store last year for the same reason.
Spread the word: Mark Zuckerberg is Andy Kaufman
This time, Facebook took advantage of Apple’s “Developer Enterprise Program,” which lets approved Apple partners, like Facebook, test and distribute apps specifically for internal use, with no review or approval process from Apple because… it’s for internal use!
Facebook carried out its data-for-cash program by masking its involvement through the use of approved 3rd-party services like Applause, BetaBound, and uTest.
Facebook claims there was nothing “‘secret’” about the program, but internal documentation that calls the app “Project Atlas” casts doubt.
