Facebook is in the Process of Cleaning up Onavo VPN App that Spy on its Users
Facebook had been using Onavo Protect to monitor mobile users’ activities. Now, it is in the process of clean up the VPN app.
Onavo is an app that allowed Facebook to monitor almost everything that users did on their phones. It has been confirmed that the app could collect information of the time you spend using apps, mobile and Wi-Fi data you use on specific app, the websites you visit, terms you use on search engine and your country, device & network type. Facebook acquired Onavo in 2013 for a reported $200 million to use its VPN app. They advertised that Onavo was tool for Internet users to reduce their data usage, protect their privacy, block malicious websites and keep their online session safe from snooping.
After the privacy mess was discovered, the company announced that they would remove the VPN app from the Play Store. They would replace the VPN app with a different market research programme. Why a market research programme? It’s worth pointing out that by losing Onavo, Facebook also loses access to valuable market research data. The data usage helped Facebook discover potential competitors and move against them.
A Facebook spokesperson said on a statement, “Market research helps companies build better products for people. We are shifting our focus to reward-based market research which means we’re going to end the Onavo programme.”
It is reported that Facebook has ceased recruiting for the controversial Facebook Research app. If you would like to protect your browsing histories and other private information, we suggest you use reliable VPN like ExpressVPN, NordVPN and PureVPN etc. They offer IP address to replace your real one & allow you to become anonymous online, use military-grade encryption to safeguard your connection to the Internet and provide worldwide servers to unblock restricted contents from anywhere. Reliable VPN providers have strict no traffic logs. Your privacy is guaranteed.