Facebook pays users to sideload data-gathering VPN in apparent violation of Apple privacy ...

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2019
Facebook appears to be once again flouting Apple's developer guidelines regarding user privacy, as a report on Tuesday reveals the social media giant is paying users ages 17 to 35 to install a VPN that aggressively monitors usage habits.

Facebook Research
Source: TechCrunch


Outlined in a expos by TechCrunch, Facebook's latest gambit to acquire user data pays participants $20 plus referral fees for nearly unfettered access to iOS usage patterns and activity.

Through the Facebook Research app for iOS, which has been available since 2016, the company is able to collect data by enabling root access to a user's device. Marketed as a "social media research study," the VPN app is distributed through beta testing services Applause, BetaBound and uTest, the report says.

Importantly, Facebook relies on the three software testing platforms to enable sideloading of the Research app, effectively bypassing Apple's App Store and its stringent guidelines. Facebook does not disseminate Research through Apple's TestFlight, presumably because the system involves an app review process and 10,000 user limit.

The entire operation smacks of deception and appears to fly in the face of Apple's good faith developer agreements. In particular, Research asks users to install an Enterprise Developer Certificate and VPN, granting root access to a bulk of iPhone's transmitted data, the report says. As noted by TechCrunch, Apple's developer guidelines place restrictions on the Enterprise Developer Certificate, noting companies are to use the privilege only for internal apps distributed to employees.

Security expert Will Strafach, who was contracted to investigate Research, said the app could make use of the root privilege to collect data pertaining to "private messages in social media apps, chats from in instant messaging apps - including photos/videos sent to others, emails, web searches, web browsing activity, and even ongoing location information by tapping into the feeds of any location tracking apps you may have installed."

Interestingly, the Research app directs data to an address associated with Onavo Protect, a Facebook VPN app that was found to violate App Store privacy regulations in 2018. At the time, Apple said Onavo Protect ran afoul of data collection restrictions and parts of the iPhone maker's developer agreement covering customer data usage. Facebook pulled Onavo Protect from the App Store shortly after Apple revised its App Store guidelines to reflect stricter policies on data collection.

According to today's report, Facebook claims the Facebook Research and Onavo Protect apps are part of different programs, though they are supported by the same group of engineers. Further, the social media monolith believes the Research project is within the scope of Apple's Enterprise Certificate policy.

"Like many companies, we invite people to participate in research that helps us identify things we can be doing better," Facebook said in a statement to TechCrunch. "Since this research is aimed at helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices, we've provided extensive information about the type of data we collect and how they can participate. We don't share this information with others and people can stop participating at any time."

Apple is aware of Facebook Research, but has yet to comment on the matter.

Update: Facebook in a statement to The Verge said it will shut down the Research app on Apple's iOS, but will keep the program live on Android.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    I guess nobody cares about following any rules or laws these days so why should Facebook? Can't wait until they're permanently shut down followed by Google.
    berndogolslkruppmagman1979macseekerapplesnorangesmacplusplusshrave10digitolmike54
  • Reply 2 of 23
    magman1979magman1979 Posts: 1,292member
    Judging by this, and other similar news stories over the last 2 years, the rule of law, or even plain simple rules, mean jack shit to most everyone these days...
    chasmapplesnorangesmike54leavingthebiggairnerdpujones1badmonkwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 23
    Pathetic in so many ways...I wouldn’t know where to start. 
    mike54badmonkwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    So, while Facebook is posting ads touting about how much they care about your privacy, they’re doing this?

    Scummiest company ever. 
    applesnorangesmacseekershrave10mike54irelandairnerdbadmonkwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 23
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,911member
    Facebook violating rules to collect private data??? I am SHOCKED!
    mike54watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Wow. They’re paying children to entrap other children in their scheme to track children. 

    If Facebook was a person, it’d be told it couldn’t live within six blocks of a playground. 
    oodlummike54beowulfschmidtbadmonkwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    The ball is now in Apple’s court. 

    Facebook needs to be curbed across all Apple’s platforms. 

    Hell, Google should be … Mmmm. Never mind. 



    edited January 2019 macseekermike54watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 23
    The world would be a better place without facebook.
    macseekershrave10mike54larryjwwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 23
    jguther said:
    The world would be a better place without facebook.
    Amen!
    mike54watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 23

    Facebook makes money by selling access to the data they scrape from YOU to third parties (e.g. Cambridge Analytica) for targeted advertising and/or manipulation.  The third parties commonly don't read or respect the terms and conditions of use of that data.

    Facebook will do whatever it takes to get that data including paying demographics to side-load habits via a data-gathering VPN.

    Google have the same class of business model.

    Remember >>> If you're not paying, you're the product.

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 23
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    No so much rule “breaking” as skirting around them.

    If the users were aware of what they were doing when they took the $20 then I don’t see all that much wrong with this. The mentality of those users to agree to such a thing is beyond me, but if it’s what they want to do, meh, knock yourself out. 

    muthuk_vanalingambeowulfschmidt
  • Reply 12 of 23
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member

    Transcript...

    Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them. 11 hours ago — reports Techcrunch

    Desperate for data on its competitors, Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity, similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app that Apple banned in June and that was removed in August. Facebook sidesteps the App Store and rewards teenagers and adults to download the Research app and give it root access to network traffic in what may be a violation of Apple policy so the social network can decrypt and analyze their phone activity, a TechCrunch investigation confirms. Facebook admitted to TechCrunch it was running the Research program to gather data on usage habits.

    Since 2016, Facebook has been paying users ages 13 to 35 up to $20 per month plus referral fees to sell their privacy by installing the iOS or Android “Facebook Research” app. Facebook even asked users to screenshot their Amazon order history page. The program is administered through beta testing services Applause, BetaBound and uTest to cloak Facebook’s involvement, and is referred to in some documentation as “Project Atlas” — a fitting name for Facebook’s effort to map new trends and rivals around the globe.

    [Update 11:20pm PT: Facebook now tells TechCrunch it will shut down the iOS version of its Research app in the wake of our report. The rest of this article has been updated to reflect this development.]

    Facebook’s Research program will continue to run on Android. We’re still awaiting comment from Apple on whether Facebook officially violated its policy and if it asked Facebook to stop the program. As was the case with Facebook removing Onavo Protect from the App Store last year, Facebook may have been privately told by Apple to voluntarily remove it.

    Facebook’s Research app requires users to ‘Trust’ it with extensive access to their data. We asked Guardian Mobile Firewall’s security expert Will Strafach to dig into the Facebook Research app, and he told us that “If Facebook makes full use of the level of access they are given by asking users to install the Certificate, they will have the ability to continuously collect the following types of data: private messages in social media apps, chats from in instant messaging apps – including photos/videos sent to others, emails, web searches, web browsing activity, and even ongoing location information by tapping into the feeds of any location tracking apps you may have installed.” It’s unclear exactly what data Facebook is concerned with, but it gets nearly limitless access to a user’s device once they install the app.

    The strategy shows how far Facebook is willing to go and how much it’s willing to pay to protect its dominance — even at the risk of breaking the rules of Apple’s iOS platform on which it depends. Apple may have asked Facebook to discontinue distributing its Research app. A more stringent punishment would be to revoke Facebook’s permission to offer employee-only apps. The situation could further chill relations between the tech giants. Apple’s Tim Cook has repeatedly criticized Facebook’s data collection practices. Facebook disobeying iOS policies to slurp up more information could become a new talking point. TechCrunch has spoken to Apple and it’s aware of the issue, but the company did not provide a statement before press time.

    Facebook’s Research program is referred to as Project Atlas on sign-up sites that don’t mention Facebook’s involvement

    “The fairly technical sounding ‘install our Root Certificate’ step is appalling,” Strafach tells us. “This hands Facebook continuous access to the most sensitive data about you, and most users are going to be unable to reasonably consent to this regardless of any agreement they sign, because there is no good way to articulate just how much power is handed to Facebook when you do this.”

    Facebook’s surveillance app: Facebook first got into the data-sniffing business when it acquired Onavo for around $120 million in 2014. The VPN app (virtual private network) helped users track and minimize their mobile data plan usage, but also gave Facebook deep analytics about what other apps they were using. Internal documents acquired by Charlie Warzel and Ryan Mac of BuzzFeed News reveal that Facebook was able to leverage Onavo to learn that WhatsApp was sending more than twice as many messages per day as Facebook Messenger. Onavo allowed Facebook to spot WhatsApp’s meteoric rise and justify paying $19 billion to buy the chat startup in 2014. WhatsApp has since tripled its user base, demonstrating the power of Onavo’s foresight.

    Over the years since, Onavo clued Facebook in to what apps to copy, features to build and flops to avoid. By 2018, Facebook was promoting the Onavo app in a Protect bookmark of the main Facebook app in hopes of scoring more users to snoop on. Facebook also launched the Onavo Bolt app that let you lock apps behind a passcode or fingerprint while it surveils you, but Facebook shut down the app the day it was discovered following privacy criticism. Onavo’s main app remains available on Google Play and has been installed more than 10 million times.

    The backlash heated up after security expert Strafach detailed in March how Onavo Protect was reporting to Facebook when a user’s screen was on or off, and its Wi-Fi and cellular data usage in bytes even when the VPN was turned off. In June, Apple updated its developer policies to ban collecting data about usage of other apps or data that’s not necessary for an app to function. Apple proceeded to inform Facebook in August that Onavo Protect violated those data collection policies and that the social network needed to remove it from the App Store, which it did, Deepa Seetharaman of the WSJ reported.

    But that didn’t stop Facebook’s data collection: Project Atlas. TechCrunch recently received a tip that despite Onavo Protect being banished by Apple, Facebook was paying users to sideload a similar VPN app under the Facebook Research moniker from outside of the App Store. We investigated, and learned Facebook was working with three app beta testing services to distribute the Facebook Research app: BetaBound, uTest and Applause. Facebook began distributing the Research VPN app in 2016. It has been referred to as Project Atlas since at least mid-2018, around when backlash to Onavo Protect magnified and Apple instituted its new rules that prohibited Onavo. Previously, a similar program was called Project Kodiak. Facebook didn’t want to stop collecting data on people’s phone usage and so the Research program continued, in disregard for Apple banning Onavo Protect.

    Facebook’s Research App on iOS for the program run by uTest on Instagram and Snapchat sought teens 13-17 years old for a “paid social media research study.” The sign-up page for the Facebook Research program administered by Applause doesn’t mention Facebook, but seeks users “Age: 13-35 (parental consent required for ages 13-17).” If minors try to sign-up, they’re asked to get their parents’ permission with a form that reveal’s Facebook’s involvement and says “There are no known risks associated with the project, however you acknowledge that the inherent nature of the project involves the tracking of personal information via your child’s use of apps. You will be compensated by Applause for your child’s participation.” For kids short on cash, the payments could coerce them to sell their privacy to Facebook.

    The Applause site explains what data could be collected by the Facebook Research app: “By installing the software, you’re giving our client permission to collect data from your phone that will help them understand how you browse the internet, and how you use the features in the apps you’ve installed . . . This means you’re letting our client collect information such as which apps are on your phone, how and when you use them, data about your activities and content within those apps, as well as how other people interact with you or your content within those apps. You are also letting our client collect information about your internet browsing activity (including the websites you visit and data that is exchanged between your device and those websites) and your use of other online services. There are some instances when our client will collect this information even where the app uses encryption, or from within secure browser sessions.”

    Meanwhile, the BetaBound sign-up page with a URL ending in “Atlas” explains that “For $20 per month (via e-gift cards), you will install an app on your phone and let it run in the background.” It also offers $20 per friend you refer. That site also doesn’t initially mention Facebook, but the instruction manual for installing Facebook Research reveals the company’s involvement.

    Facebook’s intermediary uTest ran ads on Snapchat and Instagram, luring teens to the Research program with the promise of money

    Facebook seems to have purposefully avoided TestFlight, Apple’s official beta testing system, which requires apps to be reviewed by Apple and is limited to 10,000 participants. Instead, the instruction manual reveals that users download the app from r.facebook-program.com and are told to install an Enterprise Developer Certificate and VPN and “Trust” Facebook with root access to the data their phone transmits. Apple requires that developers agree to only use this certificate system for distributing internal corporate apps to their own employees. Randomly recruiting testers and paying them a monthly fee appears to violate the spirit of that rule.

    Security expert Will Strafach found Facebook’s Research app contains lots of code from Onavo Protect, the Facebook-owned app Apple banned last year. Once installed, users just had to keep the VPN running and sending data to Facebook to get paid. The Applause-administered program requested that users screenshot their Amazon orders page. This data could potentially help Facebook tie browsing habits and usage of other apps with purchase preferences and behavior. That information could be harnessed to pinpoint ad targeting and understand which types of users buy what.

    TechCrunch commissioned Strafach to analyze the Facebook Research app and find out where it was sending data. He confirmed that data is routed to “vpn-sjc1.v.facebook-program.com” that is associated with Onavo’s IP address, and that the facebook-program.com domain is registered to Facebook, according to MarkMonitor. The app can update itself without interacting with the App Store, and is linked to the email address [email protected]. He also discovered that the Enterprise Certificate first acquired in 2016 indicates Facebook renewed it on June 27th, 2018 — weeks after Apple announced its new rules that prohibited the similar Onavo Protect app.

    “It is tricky to know what data Facebook is actually saving (without access to their servers). The only information that is knowable here is what access Facebook is capable of based on the code in the app. And it paints a very worrisome picture,” Strafach explains. “They might respond and claim to only actually retain/save very specific limited data, and that could be true, it really boils down to how much you trust Facebook’s word on it. The most charitable narrative of this situation would be that Facebook did not think too hard about the level of access they were granting to themselves . . . which is a startling level of carelessness in itself if that is the case.”

    “Flagrant defiance of Apple’s rules”

    In response to TechCrunch’s inquiry, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed it’s running the program to learn how people use their phones and other services. The spokesperson told us “Like many companies, we invite people to participate in research that helps us identify things we can be doing better. Since this research is aimed at helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices, we’ve provided extensive information about the type of data we collect and how they can participate. We don’t share this information with others and people can stop participating at any time.”

    Facebook’s Research app requires Root Certificate access, which Facebook gather almost any piece of data transmitted by your phone

    Facebook’s spokesperson claimed that the Facebook Research app was in line with Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program, but didn’t explain how in the face of evidence to the contrary. They said Facebook first launched its Research app program in 2016. They tried to liken the program to a focus group and said Nielsen and comScore run similar programs, yet neither of those ask people to install a VPN or provide root access to the network. The spokesperson confirmed the Facebook Research program does recruit teens but also other age groups from around the world. They claimed that Onavo and Facebook Research are separate programs, but admitted the same team supports both as an explanation for why their code was so similar.

    Facebook’s Research program requested users screenshot their Amazon order history to provide it with purchase data. However, Facebook’s claim that it doesn’t violate Apple’s Enterprise Certificate policy is directly contradicted by the terms of that policy. Those include that developers “Distribute Provisioning Profiles only to Your Employees and only in conjunction with Your Internal Use Applications for the purpose of developing and testing”. The policy also states that “You may not use, distribute or otherwise make Your Internal Use Applications available to Your Customers” unless under direct supervision of employees or on company premises. Given Facebook’s customers are using the Enterprise Certificate-powered app without supervision, it appears Facebook is in violation.

    Seven hours after this report was first published, Facebook updated its position and told TechCrunch that it would shut down the iOS Research app. Facebook noted that the Research app was started in 2016 and was therefore not a replacement for Onavo Protect. However, they do share similar code and could be seen as twins running in parallel. A Facebook spokesperson also provided this additional statement:

    “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.”

    Facebook did not publicly promote the Research VPN itself and used intermediaries that often didn’t disclose Facebook’s involvement until users had begun the signup process. While users were given clear instructions and warnings, the program never stresses nor mentions the full extent of the data Facebook can collect through the VPN. “A small fraction of the users paid may have been teens, but we stand by the newsworthiness of its choice not to exclude minors from this data collection initiative.”

    Facebook disobeying Apple so directly and then pulling the app could hurt their relationship. “The code in this iOS app strongly indicates that it is simply a poorly re-branded build of the banned Onavo app, now using an Enterprise Certificate owned by Facebook in direct violation of Apple’s rules, allowing Facebook to distribute this app without Apple review to as many users as they want,” Strafach tells us. ONV prefixes and mentions of graph.onavo.com, “onavoApp://” and “onavoProtect://” custom URL schemes litter the app. “This is an egregious violation on many fronts, and I hope that Apple will act expeditiously in revoking the signing certificate to render the app inoperable.”

    Facebook is particularly interested in what teens do on their phones as the demographic has increasingly abandoned the social network in favor of Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook’s acquisition Instagram. Insights into how popular with teens is Chinese video music app TikTok and meme sharing led Facebook to launch a clone called Lasso and begin developing a meme-browsing feature called LOL, TechCrunch first reported. But Facebook’s desire for data about teens riles critics at a time when the company has been battered in the press. Analysts on tomorrow’s Facebook earnings call should inquire about what other ways the company has to collect competitive intelligence now that it’s ceased to run the Research program on iOS.

    Last year when Tim Cook was asked what he’d do in Mark Zuckerberg’s position in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he said “I wouldn’t be in this situation . . . The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer, if our customer was our product. We’ve elected not to do that.” Zuckerberg told Ezra Klein that he felt Cook’s comment was “extremely glib.”

    Now it’s clear that even after Apple’s warnings and the removal of Onavo Protect, Facebook was still aggressively collecting data on its competitors via Apple’s iOS platform. “I have never seen such open and flagrant defiance of Apple’s rules by an App Store developer,” Strafach concluded. Now that Facebook has ceased the program on iOS and its Android future is uncertain, it may either have to invent new ways to surveil our behavior amidst a climate of privacy scrutiny, or be left in the dark.

    edited January 2019 watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 23
    airnerdairnerd Posts: 693member
    Well, the silver lining is now at least Facebook is paying the user to spy on them.  Every time before this they were spying and not giving any benefit to the person being spied on.  Amazing how little it costs to get some people to agree to let Facebook know everything about their life.  
    pujones1watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 23
    So Facebook sees nothing wrong in mind-raping children. Scum is too nice a word for them.
    pujones1watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 23
    Um, and Apple had no knowledge of this? Come on. Plus, what is the Enterprise Developer Certificate? What data does it allow others to get from your iPhone?
    gatorguy
  • Reply 16 of 23
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Rayz2016 said:
    The ball is now in Apple’s court. 

    Facebook needs to be curbed across all Apple’s platforms. 

    Hell, Google should be … Mmmm. Never mind. 



    I noticed the "whatabout Google-isms" creeping in, several so far and such a surprise. /s

    Unlike Facebook tho Google isn't sharing personal data with outside companies AFAICT nor paying people to bypass App Store rules.  In addition to that Apple and Google are business partners and not likely to screw things up, interfering with each of them making billions in pure profit from working together, handling any (dis)agreements directly between their executive teams. Both benefit immensely from just following the script. 

    So the concerns mentioned in the AI article really have zippity to do with anyone but Facebook. They are not things that Google does.

    So back to Facebook who for whatever reason seems to be on an uncontrollable roll with privacy issues over the last 8 months. Now it's become just piling on....
    Combined with news that they may have been lying for quite awhile now about how many users they have, (that's a big deal to advertisers) I don't know that they can completely recover. Losing more members from doing silly stuff like this?  I would have to believe Facebook is doing something with it that it believes makes it worthwhile.
    edited January 2019
  • Reply 17 of 23
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    airnerd said:
    Well, the silver lining is now at least Facebook is paying the user to spy on them.
    But this access gives FB opportunity to also spy on their user's friends.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 23
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member

    GHammer said:
    Um, and Apple had no knowledge of this? Come on. Plus, what is the Enterprise Developer Certificate? What data does it allow others to get from your iPhone?
    What's your point?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 23
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    GHammer said:
    Um, and Apple had no knowledge of this? Come on. Plus, what is the Enterprise Developer Certificate? What data does it allow others to get from your iPhone?
    https://www.computerworld.com/article/3249090/apple-ios/how-apple-developer-enterprise-license-works.html
    In combination with these:
    https://help.apple.com/profilemanager/mac/5.1.5/#/apd5BD57F16-A2BF-43B9-AB4B-24948FB52C1E
    https://help.apple.com/configurator/mac/2.2.1/#/cadf1802aed
    edited January 2019
  • Reply 20 of 23
    carnegiecarnegie Posts: 1,077member
    Rayz2016 said:
    The ball is now in Apple’s court. 

    Facebook needs to be curbed across all Apple’s platforms. 

    Hell, Google should be … Mmmm. Never mind. 



     
    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/30/apple-says-facebook-violated-its-policies-with-its-research-app.html

    Apple has revoked some developer privileges from Facebook following a TechCrunch report Tuesday that said Facebook was paying some users, including teenagers, to download an app that provided a deep level of access to activity on a user's phone.


    edited January 2019 watto_cobra
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