Facebook removes an app from the App Store due to privacy concerns
Table of contents:
- Onavo, the controversial application
- Apple has put pressure on Facebook and the latter is defending itself
Facebook just removed an app from the App Store over a privacy issue. Onavo, the VPN system that Facebook offered to users through iOS, is no longer available on the App Store.
Cupertino's warned its managers that the application was breaking the rules. And although he has not carried out the withdrawal, the exposure of his point of view has been enough to motivate the step back that Facebook has just taken.
In this way, it has been the social network itself that has hastened to remove Onavo from the catalog of applications from the Apple storeThe suggestion came, as we said, from the apple company itself, which suggested Onavo's departure from the App Store at a meeting between managers, which the Wall Street Journal is also talking about today.
Onavo, the controversial application
The mobile VPN application named Onavo Protect has been causing various controversies for some time. According to Apple, the tool seriously violated Apple Store guidelines regarding its data collection.
But what is behind this app and what is its story? Onavo is actually an app that Facebook bought in 2013 to help users monitor data usageWhat was born as an app from an Israeli startup soon became a tool that tracks user behavior outside of apps, with the aim of reporting back to Facebook.
Onavo collected the information of users who browsed through the VPN And this is a practice expressly prohibited by Apple. To this data we must add data related to the use of the device, such as the number of times we unlock it per day. This information could be of great help to Facebook for its own business strategy. Especially considering that Onavo was installed, up to now, in more than 33 million computers.
Apple has put pressure on Facebook and the latter is defending itself
As we indicated at the beginning, Facebook has been pressured by Apple, according to the Journal, so that the application was withdrawn.Keep in mind that Apple updated its privacy policy for the app store, which limits the ability of developers to create user databases and sell them to third parties.
Apple also points to Facebook's violation of the iOS developer agreement, which regulates the way developers use data beyond the core function of the application. In this case the evidence seems clear. Onavo Protect is primarily a VPN service, but for the past few years, Facebook has used it for general usage analytics forsupposedly for other purposes.
Facebook has stated, for its part, that it has always been clear about the way in which Onavo collects and uses user information . He says that now, simply, they comply with the rules that Apple has implemented.
In conversations last week, Apple suggested Faceook's removal and Faceook agreed. Therefore, from now on the application is no longer available for download.
Users who had it installed and want to continue using it will be able to do so, but Facebook will no longer have any authorization to release updates. Users of Android devices will continue to have this application available in the Google Play Store. That's how it will be if no one says otherwise.
