Facebook & Google caught paying teens to install apps on iOS that lets them spy on them.

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Facebook, Google Draw Scrutiny Over Apps That Collected Data From Teens

In the latest revelation to raise privacy concerns about Silicon Valley's tech titans, reports have surfaced that Facebook and Google offered adults and teens gift cards for installing apps that would let the companies collect data on their smartphones.

TechCrunch reported Tuesday that, since 2016, Facebook has been paying users — some as young as 13 years old — up to $20 a month to install an app called Facebook Research. The app could give Facebook access to private messages, photos, videos, emails, web searches and browsing activity, the tech news site reported.

"Facebook sidesteps the App Store and rewards teenagers and adults to download the Research app and give it root access to network traffic in what may be a violation of Apple policy so the social network can decrypt and analyze their phone activity," TechCrunch reported.

Apple has banned the Facebook Research app.

Facebook isn't the only tech company collecting data using such apps. On Wednesday, Google said it will withdraw a similar app called Screenwise Meter.

This is not the first time Facebook has been accused of going to extreme lengths to get user data. In 2013, it bought a company called Onavo and allegedly used the Onavo app to get more information about WhatsApp, a competing messaging platform that Facebook ultimately bought for $19 billion. The Facebook Research app is similar to the Onavo app banned by Apple last summer.

"To use it this way, and under their own name, is just amazing to me. I don't understand what they thought they were doing, or how they thought they could get away with this," Will Strafach, a mobile-security researcher who studied the app for TechCrunch, told NPR....

...Lawmakers are questioning Facebook about the app.

"I have concerns that users were not appropriately informed about the extent of Facebook's data-gathering and the commercial purposes of this data collection," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "Facebook's apparent lack of full transparency with users — particularly in the context of 'research' efforts — has been a source of frustration for me."

And Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote on Twitter: "Wait a minute. Facebook PAID teenagers to install a surveillance device on their phones without telling them it gave Facebook power to spy on them? Some kids as young as 13. Are you serious? "...

This is why I'll never install Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or anything from Google on my phone. It's also why I'll never buy an Android phone.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I don't Google. I Startpage.

And no need for facebook, I just send a text or an email, or better yet, call.

Email, I'm using protonmail. Same with my vpn, that's proton, too.

And no android. Nope. Huh uh. I use a gey ass iphone. Though, I do not use their cloud services. But notice nobody from the federal government's standing army against us is complaining on the cable news entertainment programming platforms about not being able to break into androids at their leisure, though. Heh heh.

I emphasize programming because they're all running interference for the state department, no matter what channel you turn it to. lol.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

'In a statement to TechCrunch, Facebook said the app "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." And, the company said, less than 5 percent of participants "in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms."' ibid

The lesson Facebook continues to fail to learn is that there is nothing it can do to stop being attacked and vilified, regardless how warranted or unwarranted.

 

[Oddball]

'In a statement to TechCrunch, Facebook said the app "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." And, the company said, less than 5 percent of participants "in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms."' ibid

The lesson Facebook continues to fail to learn is that there is nothing it can do to stop being attacked and vilified, regardless how warranted or unwarranted.

Rube.

 

[iceberg]

I don't Google. I Startpage.

And no need for facebook, I just send a text or an email, or better yet, call.

Email, I'm using protonmail. Same with my vpn, that's proton, too.

And no android. Nope. Huh uh. I use a gey ass iphone. Though, I do not use their cloud services. But notice nobody from the federal government's standing army against us is complaining on the cable news entertainment programming platforms about not being able to break into androids at their leisure, though. Heh heh.

I emphasize programming because they're all running interference for the state department, no matter what channel you turn it to. lol.

i use facebook only to keep up with friends i would not see what they are doing otherwise.

friends going to show up at the club down the road, cool. i know if i go i'll see some friends.
getting band notifications for locals i'd like to check out
seeing if someone nearby has a table for sale cause mine keeps wobbling. maybe i'll just try to brace it and keep it, huh?
hey - my radio show is about to start - gather my 5 friends and let's party!

but i don't get into "discussions" there anymore. simply not worth it.