Once again Facebook finds itself in a position no company should end up in. It was reported that they have been secretly paying teenagers and adults to install a VPN app that allows them to collect all the data on how they use their smartphones.
“Project Atlas”
It all began in 2016 with the so-called “Facebook Research” app where some of the users were being paid 20$ a month for permission to gather all kinds of data from their device. It enables Facebook to view web searches, location information, private messages on social media apps, and a lot of other activities. What is more, Facebook even asked users to screenshot their Amazon order history page. To mask its involvement in everything, the program is said to be administered through beta testing services like Applause, BetaBound and uTest and is referred to as “Project Atlas.”
Violation of policies
The app was also available on iOS, however, since it can decrypt and analyzy users phone activity it was a violation of Apple policy. After the report on the app, Facebook stated that it would shut down the iOS version of its app. In this case, Apple was quicker and had already blocked the “Facebook Research” on their system.
“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. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.” – statement from Apple spokesperson
Not a bright future
Facebook has had a rough couple of years now, especially after it was revealed that the data of 87 million users had been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. It is also scandalous, that ads for this app that ran on Instagram and Snapchat specifically asked for participants to be 13 to 17 years old. Who knows what we will find out in the future, but if you have any thoughts what can also be wrong with Facebook feel free to share it in the comments.
Sources:
- https://www.marketplace.org/2019/01/30/tech/facebook-has-been-paying-teens-data-what-does-mean-calls-regulate-company
- https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/facebook-project-atlas/
- https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/30/18203803/facebook-research-vpn-minors-data-access-apple
- https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3070119/facebook-has-been-paying-teens-for-unfettered-access-to-their-data
- https://www.techzim.co.zw/2019/01/facebook-was-paying-teens-20-month-for-all-of-their-data/
It really hasn’t been a good couple of years for Facebook. What is especially shocking is that they spied on kids really, who may or may not have any notion of how their privacy was violated. In a desperate move to gain advantage over their competitors, Facebook really overstepped their mark. I wonder how it will be resolved
Despite how unethical this move was, Facebook for sure gain a lot of money from this. As the data is one of the most important resources they gain huge amount of it even the one which was unavaible for them. This move shows how desprated they are to gain more
It’s a way to make money for people who don’t care about privacy, but it is also very unethical for Facebook to do so, but Facebook seems like it stopped caring about their reputation and got addicted to mining data as if it was crack cocaine. Young people have yet to learn how valuable their privacy is and that it is immoral and sometimes illegal to violate one’s privacy. Tricking young people to make money by stripping them from data is like making money off of the poorest people.
On the one hand this whole action which Facebook has done is really unethical and can really limit users trust to their company.
Although, on the other hand, people have known about being spied, because they were being paid and probably have known terms of a contract (i hope so at least). As you said, they were also sending screenshots to Facebook. What I’m trying to say, that despite being really unethical, I think that Facebook was trying to develop and use this to its own growth and progress. It has gained a lot of money too.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Facebook fail in recent years. With so much controversy surrounding it recently changes need to be done. Unethical behaviour is scandalous for any company and when it comes to one that manages your personal information you need to be even more aware, but as we can see Facebook fails one time after another.