Facebook shuts down its Onavo VPN app that was spying on users
In 2013 Facebook acquired Onavo, an Israeli startup whose application was focused on reducing data usage, although later it focused on protecting privacy. The truth, although it sounds ironic, different reports have been giving clues over time that Onavo was doing just the opposite: spying on users. In fact, since 2016, Facebook has been paying users between the ages of 13 and 35 for installing Facebook Research (currently Onavo Atlas), a VPN that allowed the platform to have information on all web activity, and that was created thanks to the purchase of this Israeli company.The study has resulted in Facebook withdrawing it from Google Play, something Apple already did from the App Store last August.
Youth and adults could access Facebook Research through a form. Once registered, they received the installation file for iOS or Android, and then a payment of up to 20 dollars per month (about 17 euros to change). This figure could increase, since it was possible to obtain an amount of 10 dollars for each referral, therefore, as some users maintain, it allowed them to collect more than a thousand dollars in some months.
The purpose of these payments was to obtain private data, using this VPN as a hook in exchange for money. Data such as the exchange of private messages, downloaded files or even browsing history.The controversy goes further, since this service not only accepted adults, but also minors, children as young as 13 years old. Likewise, the Onavo Atlas application warned that if the application were installed on a minor's mobile device, the father or mother would be rewarded in the same way as if they were adults.
Facebook's response once the scandal broke was that, according to data from the Research program, less than 5% of users of the platform were minors. However, the misappropriation of private data is evident. Now Facebook, without Onavo as a powerful method of market research, has it a little more complicated.
