Facebook has been paying teens up to $20 a month to spy on their Android, iOS devices

Facebook has been secretly running a program, called Project Atlas, to collect private phone and web activity stats from paid volunteers for past three years and “has plans to stop,” according to a new TechCrunch report. report claims social media company has been paying users s 13 to 35 up to $20 plus referral fees a month in exchange for installing an app called Facebook Research on ir Android or iOS devices, which collects this data and sends it back to Facebook. Facebook has confirmed existence of research program to TechCrunch. 

Facebook was previously collecting some of this data through Onavo Protect, a VPN service that it acquired for around $120 million in 2014. data is said to have helped Facebook gauge vast potential of WhatsApp -- a startup n -- at one point of time, n acquire it for $19 billion in same year. Facebook removed app from Apple App Store last year after Apple complained that it violated ir guidelines on privacy and data collection.  

Facebook may have chalked out a workaround ban with its Research app – report calls it a poorly re-branded build of banned Onavo app – in that, it has essentially been paying users to sidelo it from outside of App Store. Facebook has broly been working with three app beta testing services, BetaBound, uTest and Applause, to distribute its Research app, and it has been doing this since 2016 in what appears to be an open disregard for Apple’s privacy rules. 

Research app requires that users install a custom root certificate which is actually an enterprise certificate designed to grant employers access to employees’ work devices, but Facebook has been using it to gain root access on iPhones meant for consumers. whole process allows Facebook to “distribute this app without Apple review to as many users as y want.” A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed to TechCrunch that said program somehow does t violate Apple’s policies, even though it may seem like it does.  

What’s alarming is that Facebook gets “nearly limitless access to a user’s device once y install app,” ranging from “private messs in social media apps, chats from in instant messaging apps – including photos/videos sent to ors, emails, web searches, web browsing activity, and even ongoing location information by tapping into feeds of any location tracking apps you may have installed.” app also apparently asks users to take screenshots of ir Amazon order history and send it back to Facebook. And re’s way users kw that Facebook is involved, until just before y install app – possibly lured by cash.  

Facebook has been in eye of storm over a string of privacy scandals lately. And Apple has been more than vocal about its stand on user privacy. Last year when Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked what he’d do if he were in Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg’s position in wake of Cambridge Analytica scandal, he said “I wouldn’t be in this situation. truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer, if our customer was our product. We’ve elected t to do that.”

Zuckerberg h called Tim Cook's comments on Facebook extremely glib saying just because social media company did t charge its users, it didn’t mean it cared any less about m (about ir privacy).

w that Facebook has been caught foot in mouth, paying volunteers to spy on ir devices, tensions are bound to heighten between two companies.