A few days ago, Apple and Google crossed swords again as the latter was found distributing its internal iOS apps that were supposed to be kept for enterprise purposes. Prior to that, Facebook was allegedly spotted doing the same with its Facebook Research VPN app but the social media giant refutes to claims that it spied on its users.
In an attempt to fight back claims of privacy breach, Facebook has released an internal memo stating that while it encouraged customers to download the app, it never did make use of data. The company said that the Facebook Research VPN app didn’t even extract data that most cookies do and that it doesn’t agree with the terms ‘secretive’ and ‘spy’ which it was allegedly pointed with.
Additionally, Facebook claimed that it was “as transparent as possible” about what it was doing but then it was found that the app was never announced as a new product, which is what Facebook does upon the latest release. While on the topic of transparency, the VPN app never informed users that Facebook and its intermediary companies will be collecting their data and users were also prohibited from discussing the app. This meant Facebook wasn’t as transparent about its wrongdoings as it claims to be.
The memo comes after Facebook was found violating the code of enterprise distribution of their app on iOS. The company has since then taken down the Research VPN app from the Apple App Store after Apple admitted to a breach of the agreement by the social media platform. However, Facebook is still running its research app on Android phones, encouraging teenagers and users of ages between 15 and 35 to sell their privacy for a fixed charge per month.
Facebook has been on the wrong side of news lately ever since it was caught having made mistakes in the Cambridge Analytica data breach to which its CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted to not doing enough to protect its users’ privacy. In the aftermath of these incidents, Facebook has also lost several employees including WhatsApp CEO who left the company after disagreements over privacy.