Facebook launching app that pays users for data on app usage

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook on Tuesday launched an app that will pay users to share information with the social media giant about which apps they’re using.

The company previously rolled out two similar apps that tracked what activities people did on their phones.

But both were shut down after drawing criticism for infringing on privacy and for violating Apple’s App Store guidelines.

Facebook said the new app, called Study, is different than the previous two and was built from scratch. And it is only available on the Google Play Store, though Facebook said it might work to expand it to iOS in the future.

The new app will collect information about which apps people are using and for how long, including which app features are used — giving Facebook valuable insight into how people use its competitors’ services.

Facebook said it will not track passwords or account IDs and it will periodically remind people that the app is collecting their data.

A previous market-research app from the company, called Research, got in hot water earlier this year when a report found that teens were using it and it was sidestepping Apple’s guidelines.

Apple booted it from its app store and Facebook eventually shut it down completely.

The other app, called Onavo Protect, was a virtual private network service used to keep information private in public settings — but it was also collecting information about app usage and sending it to Facebook.

That app, too, has been shut down.

Facebooks appears to be acting in a more upfront manner this time, said Lance Cottrell, chief scientist for the cybersecurity firm Ntrepid.

“They are being a little less intrusive with this one,” he said.

But some privacy experts are concerned users will still not know exactly what information they are sending.

Facebook is not saying how much it will pay participants to share their information. /gsg