Facebook has said that it is shutting down its controversial ‘Facebook Research’ iPhone app, after it was disclosed that the company had repackaged its banned Onavo VPN app and was paying teens and adults $20/month to install it.
Update: It turns out it wasn’t even Facebook’s decision to shutdown the iOS app – it was Apple. Apple PR via Recode:
Update 2: Many of Facebook’s internal iOS apps have been disabled after Apple revoked its enterprise certificate.
Which explains why Facebook appears to be continuing to offer the Android version of the app.
TechCrunch yesterday revealed that Facebook was using a sketchy backdoor method to install the app after the original version – branded Onavo VPN – was banned by Apple for violating the App Store’s privacy policies.
Although the name of the app was changed to Facebook Research, it appears to use the same code as the banned version.
Facebook completely bypasses Apple’s own beta testing system TestFlight for this app. Instead, users must visit r.facebook-program.com, where they are instructed to install “an Enterprise Developer Certificate and VPN” and “trust Facebook with root access to their phone plus much of the data it transmits.”
This certificate is only supposed to be used by developers distributing internal corporate applications, with Facebook’s implementation seemingly a clear violation of that guideline.
According to The Verge, Facebook has said in an email that it is withdrawing the iPhone app – but seemingly not the Android one.
It’s not the first time this month that Facebook has been accused of taking advantage of kids: a recent report revealed that the company was aware of developers enticing children into spending money on games without parental approval, referring to the practice as ‘Friendly Fraud.’
More news from The Verge, based on Facebook’s enterprise certificate that Apple revoked, many of Facebook’s internal iOS apps have now been disabled.
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