A new app by Facebook will now allow users to sell their data to the Social Media company.
The data will include how users use applications by Facebook’s competitors.
Facebook announced on Tuesday the 11th Of June 2019, that it is currently recruiting participants to download its new app called ‘Study’ from the Google Play store.
Once the app has been downloaded, it will then begin to transmit data on what other apps the users have installed, what features they use, and how much time is spent on them, to Facebook Inc.
The new app; Study, comes after Apple cracked down on Facebook in June 2018 and again in January 2019 for similar apps that paid users as young as 13 years old, for extensive data on their phone usage.
This new entry called Study, is seen by observers as Facebook effort at becoming much more transparent about its quests for user data.
The app Study and its service(s), is not available on Apple’s iOS platform as it bans the collection of “information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing”.
Facebook in a post announcing the launch of Study, stated that “We believe this work is important to help us improve our products for the people who use Facebook,”.
The social media giant added that “We also know that this kind of research must be clear about what people are signing up for, how their information will be collected and used, and how to opt out of the research at any time.”
Facebook made it known that Only users who are 18 years and older, will be eligible to participate in Study’s data collection.
Facebook did not however, say how much compensation users will receive for the Study app.
In a previous version of Facebook’s data collecting services called ‘Facebook Research’, users between the ages of 13 years and 35 years were paid a monthly fee of up to $20 (2,000 Kenyan Shillings) as compensation for tracking the data from all other platforms the users accessed.
It was eventually removed from Apple’s app store and then later shut down by Facebook.
In addition to Facebook Research, Apple also removed the Facebook research app; Onavo VPN from the app store in June 2018.
Facebook said it is currently looking to approach marketing research in “a responsible way” and that “what people expect when they sign up to participate in market research has changed”.
Privacy experts are however of the opinion that, incentivizing the sale of data, complicates the question of consent.
Nathan Wenzler, the senior director of cybersecurity at wealth management firm Moss Adams, “Providing users this up front sort of notice is definitely a good thing, and should be the norm for any company which markets, advertises or otherwise makes use of users’ personal information for generating revenue,”.
“However, human nature has shown us that providing some sort of reward, no matter how small, is often sufficient to make people agreeable to turning over their personal information.”, Mr. Nathan added.
