DislikeFacebook paying $20 to spy on teens

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Facebook has been paying teens $20 a month for total access to their phone activity

The company’s research division is installing root certificates on iPhones


Facebook has run a program to collect intimate user data from paid volunteers for the past three years, according to a new report. TechCrunch reported that the company has been paying people ages 13 to 25 as much as $20 month in exchange for installing an app called Facebook Research on iOS or Android, which monitors their phone and web activity and sends it back to Facebook. The company confirmed the existence of the research program to TechCrunch.

Facebook was previously collecting some of this data through Onavo Protect, a VPN service that it acquired in 2013. The data has proven extremely valuable to Facebook in identifying up-and-coming competitors, then acquiring or cloning them. Facebook removed the app from the App Store last summer after Apple complained that it violated the App Store’s guidelines on data collection.

The Research app requires that users install a custom root certificate, which gives Facebook the ability to see users’ private messages, emails, web searches, and browsing activity. It also asks users to take screenshots of their Amazon order history and send it back to Facebook.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The program appears to violate Apple’s policies for developers using enterprise certificates to grant root access to iPhones. The certificates, which are intended to grant employers access to employees’ work devices, are prohibited from being installed on customers’ phones. TechCrunch reported that a Facebook spokesperson said the program did not violate Apple’s policies but could not explain how.

Facebook took steps to hide its involvement in the project until just before it installed the app, TechCrunch reported. Beta-testing services Applause, BetaBound and, uTest all provide services related to the research program:

"Facebook began distributing the Research VPN app in 2016. It has been referred to as Project Atlas since at least mid-2018, around when backlash to Onavo Protect magnified and Apple instituted its new rules that prohibited Onavo. Facebook didn’t want to stop collecting data on people’s phone usage and so the Research program continued, in disregard for Apple banning Onavo Protect.

Ads (shown below) for the program run by uTest on Instagram and Snapchat sought teens 13-17 years old for a “paid social media research study.” The sign-up page for the Facebook Research program administered by Applause doesn’t mention Facebook, but seeks users “Age: 13-35 (parental consent required for ages 13-17).”

If Apple decides that Facebook Research violates its policies, the company could move to block its use of enterprise certificates, heightening the already high tensions between the companies. In the meantime, we’ve learned about one more way Facebook is hoovering up the most intimate details of our lives, for $20 a month.

Source: https://www-theverge-com.cdn.ampproject ... techcrunch
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Re: Facebook paying $20 to spy on teens

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mlawson71 wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 1:32 am How exactly do they get the parental consent?
They did not. I also read that on heise.de. Root access means they see like spyware every click and input you do like writing. For parental control, they do not allow such programs, but for facebook no problem.
On android, any app from outside the store can get root access on older mobile phones.
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Re: Facebook paying $20 to spy on teens

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friend4you wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:02 am

They did not. I also read that on heise.de. Root access means they see like spyware every click and input you do like writing. For parental control, they do not allow such programs, but for facebook no problem.
On android, any app from outside the store can get root access on older mobile phones.
This is outrageous and completely unacceptable. Minors - including teenagers - cannot enter into any sort of contracts, including one like this.

Re: Facebook paying $20 to spy on teens

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friend4you wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:02 am
They did not. I also read that on heise.de. Root access means they see like spyware every click and input you do like writing. For parental control, they do not allow such programs, but for facebook no problem.
On android, any app from outside the store can get root access on older mobile phones.
insane man...... alex jones was right all along :shock: how can they get away with this???
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Re: Facebook paying $20 to spy on teens

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moey_dw wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 12:37 am
insane man...... alex jones was right all along :shock: how can they get away with this???
Easiest way is to use an older android, which easily can be rooted, but not under 6.0. I use LBE as an easy to use device manager lbesec.com, but only the last older version 6.1.2235, which has most features, which has been removed later, so that they can stay on google app store. Many apps have battery and data consuming adware in it like individual IDs like on often used facebook sdk, even if you never used facebook or its app.

Are we insane to buy every 2 years new mobiles for 1000 $ and never have admin rights of it? Data is combined and saved by many companies like NSA for life.
Mobiles are many times faster than the pcs that were used to bring the first man to moon. Most don't use these features and even older apps are often better than the newer ones.
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Re: Facebook paying $20 to spy on teens

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moey_dw wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:01 am agree it is true..... and I think fb should die just like MySpace
You read the book or an interview with Rachel Botsman: "The Facebook brand dies. It will be the new myspace in five years. Incidentally, I do not believe in the thesis that the network can not go down because of its sheer size. People will find new places. They have always done that." Here in Germany, noone uses FB anymore, many never did and the young ones now use only Instagram. FB got pretty irrelavant here.

FB also has Instagram, WhatsApp and some others brands, so it will survive but not in the shape as it is.


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