Facebook shuts program to pay iPhone users for sharing data

Facebook will shut down a program to pay iPhone users for sharing their personal data, following a report disclosing controversial details of the effort including that some participants were teenagers.

Facebook has been paying people to install a "Facebook Research" Virtual Private Network (VPN) that lets the company access user's data.

According to a TechCrunch report, the social media giant was running the Research programme to gather data on usage habits, and it has no plans to stop.

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 that the social network can decrypt and analyze their phone activity, TechCrunch reported.

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 programme 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.

Facebook confirmed the existence of the program but took issue with its representation.

“Key facts about this market research program are being ignored,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. “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 onboarding 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 has been under fire for months over its privacy practices and role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In one major data breach disclosed last year, Cambridge Analytica obtained information on millions of Facebook users through a third-party app.