James Martin
Facebook has run into trouble with Apple over a controversial research program the social network used to collect data for market research, and that could have widespread repercussions for all sorts of app work at Facebook.
The Facebook Research app is part of a market research program, through which it collected user data from volunteers about their phone and web activity. The company gave those people, aged 13 to 35, a monthly payment of $20, in addition to referral fees, in return for downloading the app. That software gives Facebook access to the users’ data including web searches, location data and private messages.
Apple said the app violated its policies.
“We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization,” Apple said in an emailed statement. “Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple.”
The iPhone maker said that any developer who uses an enterprise certificate to distribute apps to consumers will have that certificate revoked — in this case, to protect Apple’s users and their data.
Here’s the bigger issue that’s now at hand for Facebook: The loss of the certificate means that the company can’t distribute any internal iOS apps, according to The New York Times. That means that beta versions of software involving changes to the Facebook, Instagram, Messenger apps, as well as some employee apps, have stopped working, the publication reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the situation.
Watch this:
Apple, Facebook support more privacy laws
1:32
Facebook had said earlier that it would pull the iOS version of the Facebook Research app, according to TechCrunch, which earlier had reported on the existence of the app.
In an emailed statement, Facebook noted that it didn’t share the data it got with anyone and that people can opt out whenever they want.
“Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing ‘secret’ about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App,” a spokesperson said.
In March 2018, Facebook became embroiled in a scandal over the Cambridge Analytica research firm and its sharing of data on as many as 87 million Facebook users. That controversy, along with other aspects of Facebook’s handling of privacy issues, took center stage at hearings before the US Congress.
Facebook also disputed the characterization of the program as spying on users.
“It 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.”
The company also downplayed the use of the app by teenagers. “Less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier reports pointed out that the app is similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app, which Apple previously banned over violations of its privacy rules. Facebook removed the Onavo app in August.
It’s unclear yet if Android users will still be able to access the Facebook Research app.
First published at 7:03 a.m. PT.
Updated at 8:45 a.m. PT: Added information about problems with internal app development at Facebook.
Cambridge Analytica: Everything you need to know about Facebook’s data mining scandal.
CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET’s newsstand edition.