Facebook to Shut Down Controversial iOS Market Research App as Apple Revokes Certificate [Updated]

[MacRumors]

Facebook has said it will end a controversial market research program in which the company paid users to install a mobile app that tracked their activity and data.

In a statement given to TechCrunch and other websites, the company said that its "Facebook Research" app, which paid volunteers between the ages of 13 and 35 up to $20 a month to access nearly all their data, would no longer be available on iOS.

The news came just hours after TechCrunch's exposé on the Facebook app, which used an enterprise certificate on iPhones to get people to sideload the app and skirt Apple's App Store rules. In the same announcement, the company also took issue with the way its "Project Atlas" program had been reported, claiming:

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. 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. Finally, 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.

In August 2018, Apple forced Facebook to remove its Onavo VPN app from the App Store because Facebook was using it to track user activity and data across multiple apps, which is a violation of Apple's App Store policy.

According to TechCrunch, a significant amount of code in the banned Onavo VPN app overlaps with the company's Facebook Research app, which remains available on Android devices.

Update: Apple revoked Facebook's certificate for the app, according to a statement it provided to Recode:

We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.

Article Link: Facebook to Shut Down Controversial iOS Market Research App as Apple Revokes Certificate [Updated]

 

[Chrjy]

I think the writing is on the wall for Facebook, I can't seem them being around in a few years.

 

[d0minick]

Got rid of Facebook back in 2012ish. Haven't looked back.

It was much cleaner back then, I remember joining when only .edu was allowed. I only regret all the untagged pictures left on it that I did not grab.

 

[Solomani]

For a second, I thought the thread title screamed Facebook to Shut Down!

 

[chatin]

Someone was watching the decline in real time.

 

[rodpascoe]

Sad that the media hate on companies with these bullsh!t stories.

This was an open and above board research app that under 18’s had to get parental permission to use.

 

[timber]

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. 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. Finally, 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.

If everything is so great please remind me.. Why are you shutting down the App?

 

[freezelighter]

Shut down Facebook.
Make the world great again.

 

[ChrisMoBro]

Facebook is literally its own worst enemy. It’s almost as if they’re asking to be regulated. They’re quick to resolve any problems but it begs the question how many more unscrupulous things are they up to and will they only shut them down once they’re caught?

 

[luisfrocha]

First thing that comes to mind is that they’re now able to do the same “research” without having to install a special app

 

[kasakka]

Facebook is literally its own worst enemy. It’s almost as if they’re asking to be regulated. They’re quick to resolve any problems but it begs the question how many more unscrupulous things are they up to and will they only shut them down once they’re caught?

Yeah they are extremely good at alienating their users with ****** feed changes, features nobody wants and dubious privacy. I hear for their real clients aka advertisers the user interfaces are equally ******.

They've strayed so far from a service where people would go to chat with others and stay informed on what is happening in their friend's lives (even if it's a curated experience) to mostly a platform where people share links to whatever article or video.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Sad that the media hate on companies with these bullsh!t stories.This was an open and above board research app that under 18’s had to get parental permission to use.

I remember when I was young, and we got the new high speed 14.4 modem, dialed in, and there were all these colorful websites showing beautiful girls doing wild things we’d never even imagined. But, you had to be over 18 to click proceed, so of course we never saw any of it...

 

[Solomani]

facebook can always start a new privacy-eroding app…. it will pay American teenagers to

Shut down Facebook.
Make the world great again.

And Make the Internet great again! AMIGA!

 

[Rogifan]

So did someone at Apple have a conversation with Facebook?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Good. Another wooden stake thru the heart. Throw some holy water on FB, and maybe it will die.

 

[arkitect]

Good. Another wooden stake thru the heart. Throw some holy water on FB, and maybe it will die.

Actually this is more like fighting the Hydra… slice off one head and two grow in its place.

 

[AlliFlowers]

I've been a participant in this study from day one. I'm 60 years old, so yea, I kinda knew what I was signing up for. But even had I been 16, it would have been obvious. They were very up front and open about the process and what they were doing. I'm sorry it's being shut down - I'll miss the gift cards at the end of the month.

Point of interest - they haven't notified participants yet that it's being shut down.

 

[bgalakazam]

That didn’t take long.

 

[gnasher729]

Sad that the media hate on companies with these bullsh!t stories.

This was an open and above board research app that under 18’s had to get parental permission to use.

That was a filthy and stealthy attempt to grab _all_ of a users network access and make it accessible to Facebook. They abused an Enterprise account which allows you to install apps that are not reviewed by Apple _on devices belonging to your company_. So Zukerberg could have installed this app on his company phone, but had no right whatsoever to install it on any phone not used by a Facebook employee.

 

[djtech42]

Got rid of Facebook back in 2012ish. Haven't looked back.

It was much cleaner back then, I remember joining when only .edu was allowed. I only regret all the untagged pictures left on it that I did not grab.

You can still go get those pictures. There's really no way to actually get rid of Facebook. They hold onto your profile forever, and they just "deactivate" it to hide it, but it still exists.

 

[Sasparilla]

I think the writing is on the wall for Facebook, I can't seem them being around in a few years.

I think this is a symptom of a larger problem in much of the "free to use" market like this. If the vendor (Facebook, Google, Microsoft etc. betrays the user's trust more, they get more money from their customers (the advertisors or people they sell the user's information to - like the ISP's caught selling user information to bounty hunters through 3rd parties a couple of weeks ago).

It doesn't appear to be a sustainable business model as the next executive or company will always want to screw over the users further - cause that's how the company gets more money and she / he gets promoted, but eventually it'll be torn down as citizens won't tolerate how bad its gotten. JMHO...

 

[tridley68]

Face who?

 

[G5isAlive]

I've been a participant in this study from day one. I'm 60 years old, so yea, I kinda knew what I was signing up for. But even had I been 16, it would have been obvious. They were very up front and open about the process and what they were doing. I'm sorry it's being shut down - I'll miss the gift cards at the end of the month.

Point of interest - they haven't notified participants yet that it's being shut down.

I am curious what the point of the program was... a lot of people are vilifying Facebook, but no one has said what the app did with all that data, why it was being collected, and what the eventual goal was. Clearly at $20/month Facebook had a lot of interest in this area and I dont think it was to sell soap. Genuinely curious. Did Facebook explain to you WHY they were doing this?

 

[AlliFlowers]

I am curious what the point of the program was... a lot of people are vilifying Facebook, but no one has said what the app did with all that data, why it was being collected, and what the eventual goal was. Clearly at $20/month Facebook had a lot of interest in this area and I dont think it was to sell soap. Genuinely curious. Did Facebook explain to you WHY they were doing this?

Probably. It's been a while, and since my data is hardly important, it didn't really matter to me.

 

[78Bandit]

I've been a participant in this study from day one. I'm 60 years old, so yea, I kinda knew what I was signing up for. But even had I been 16, it would have been obvious. They were very up front and open about the process and what they were doing. I'm sorry it's being shut down - I'll miss the gift cards at the end of the month.

Point of interest - they haven't notified participants yet that it's being shut down.

which paid volunteers between the ages of 13 and 35 up to $20 a month to access nearly all their data

Did you tell them you were under 35, or is Facebook fudging the truth as to who they were paying?