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Big news: Facebook has been paying teens & adults $20/month to give it root access to all data transmitted by their phone. Here's what my investigation found... 1/ tcrn.ch/2Wo1J4J
Apple banned Facebook's VPN/surveillance app Onavo last year, but Fb kept paying people to install its similar Research app through Apple's enterprise certificate program meant for employee-only apps 2/ 
Facebook hid its identity but had intermediaries like uTest advertise to teens on Snapchat & Instagram that they could earn money via "social media research" aka selling their privacy. 3/
Craziest part: Facebook (though its middleman Applause) demanded that Research app users submit screenshots of their Amazon order history page. That's some juicy data. 4/
Facebook's own sign-up pages for its Research program detail just how much data it's slurping up, including decrypting encrypted transmissions (!!!) 5/
TechCrunch had security expert @Chronic dig into Facebook's Research app. Users have to 'Trust' Facebook with the power to view their private messages, photo/video messages, emails, web searches, browsing activity, and even location info. 6/
"This hands Facebook continuous access to the most sensitive data about you, and most users are unable to reasonably consent. There is no good way to articulate just how much power is handed to Facebook when you do this.” -security expert @Chronic 7/
Now we're waiting to hear if Apple will revoke Facebook's internal use-only enterprise certificate for sidestepping the App Store to distribute a policy-violating app to non-employees. This could heat up Zuck vs Cook tensions 8/
Facebook is so desperate to know what teens want & find the next WhatsApp that it's paying to decrypt their phone data & risking Apple's wrath. Here's my full report: 9/ techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/fac…
If this whole debacle blew your mind like it did mine, follow me here & sign up for my upcoming newsletter below to hear about my next investigation. And watch out for Big Brother. 10/10 getrevue.co/profile/joshco…
Update! Facebook is shutting down its iOS Research app after we exposed its policy problems and sparked criticism from all of you. Thanks for spreading the word!
