Here’s how Facebook got around Apple App Store rules with its research app that sucked up all your data

This is the latest in a string of data scandals at the social network 
Facebook paid teens to hand over information about how they used their phones
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Amelia Heathman30 January 2019

The latest Facebook scandal is a big one. A major report from TechCrunch has found the social media company was paying people to install a VPN that allowed Facebook to access all of a user’s phone and web activity, since 2016.

Named Facebook Research, Facebook didn’t go down the usual channels of hosting the app through the Apple App Store after its previous attempts were banned by Apple. Instead, the app encouraged teens and adults to download the app and give it “root access to network traffic”, so Facebook could decrypt and analyse the way people were using their devices.

This is the equivalent of jail-breaking your device, which allows you to install software that the manufacturer wouldn't normally allow you to do, and comes with a whole host of security problems.

The emphasis here is certainly on the fact Facebook was tapping teens for this information. The company was paying users aged between 13 and 35 $20 (£15.27) per month plus referral fees to sell their privacy by installing the app.

Facebook says users had to prove they had parental consent if they were under 18. However, when the BBC identified itself as a 14-year-old boy in a test, it was able to download the app without specifying parental consent.

Facebook Research offered almost complete access to someone’s phone activity. That included the contents of private messages, emails, web browsing activity, logs of installed apps, location history and data usage.

TechCrunch also reported that users were asked to provide screenshots of their Amazon orders.

VPNs are very important to Facebook, and it has used information like this in the past to make acquisitions, notably WhatsApp.

In its defence, Facebook said it was open about its research programmes and never tried to hide the information it was collecting. A spokesperson told TechCrunch: “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.”

Since TechCrunch published the article, Facebook has said it will shut down the iOS Research app, however, it looks like the Android version is still available.

Issues like this demonstrate the ever-pressing need for digital literacy. Sure, you may have signed up to the app and thought it was great to get $20 a month minimum from Facebook for simply letting it see what you’re doing on your phone. But, the cost of that information is certainly worth more than $20, and we’re only now waking up to the implications of giving away our data.

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