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Journalism can make tech giants change. After TechCrunch investigated Facebook's teen surveillance apps, it's killing off its Onavo spyware! 1/ 
First off, thanks to all the readers & fellow journalists who spoke up about our report on Facebook paying teens to analyze all their data. That backlash is what forced their retreat! techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/fac… 2/
Facebook claimed there was "nothing secret about" its shady Research app despite threatening testers with legal action if they talked about it. But public outcry proved otherwise, and Apple shut it down on iOS. 3/
Facebook was unfortuantely still recruiting paid users for its spyware Research app & scoring unpaid downloads of its Onavo surveillance app on Android, until today... 4/
All the backlash made Facebook reconsider and tonight it confirmed it will shut down Onavo completely and immediately cease using its VPN data for competitive intelligence. 5/
Facebook will stop recruiting testers, including teens, for its Research app that paid teens gift cards for root network access to all their phone's data. 6/
Facebook will keep paying users to research their behavior, but we're pushing it to be upfront, avoid teens & sensitive data, and ensure users know what privacy they're sacrificing. 7/
Here's our full report on Facebook cancelling Onavo. Good riddance! techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/fac… 8/
Together we can push tech giants to trest us right. For more of my investigations or to tell me what to dig on next, join my newsletter. Thank you, for real. getrevue.co/profile/joshco…
