Facebook paid $20 a month to teens to get complete access to their data: Report

UPDATE: Hours after the Facebook Research Programme app was reported, the social media giant has now said that it is officially taking the research programme app off Apple. For obvious reasons, the Facebook Research app would then also be in violation of Apple’s policies as most of its program code seems to be taken lock, stock from Onavo’s code. Representational Image How does Facebook Research bypass Apple’s App Store? Since Onavo Protect app was taken off the App Store for violating Apple’s privacy policies, there was no way Facebook Research could be distributed via the App Store. For the ones who did end up signing up for this, if they were below 18 years of age, the app would prompt them to ask for parental permission via a form, a part of which read: “There are no known risks associated with the project, however, you acknowledge that the inherent nature of the project involves tracking of personal information via your child’s use of apps.” Here’s all the data Facebook Research app would send back to Facebook According to a security expert, Will Strafach, who spoke to TechCrunch, the Facebook Research app would have the ability to continuously access users’ private messages on social media apps and chats from instant messengers, photos and videos sent on mail, web searches, browsing activity, also the location of the user.