After Apple forced Facebook to pull Onavo Protect from the iOS App Store, and to cease using Facebook Research, the social network seems to be finally taking the hint about its spyware …
TechCrunch reports that Facebook is pulling the Android version of Onavo VPN too, and that it is ceasing to recruit new users for the Android version of its Facebook Research app.
Crazily, it is still clinging on in one respect, though.
Facebook has also ceased to recruit new users for the Facebook Research app that still runs on Android but was forced off of iOS by Apple after we reported on how it violated Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program for employee-only apps.
Facebook launched Onavo Protect, a VPN app, early last year. However, as we noted at the time, the app was effectively acting as spyware by collecting user data from both apps and websites.
In August last year, Apple instructed Facebook to pull the iOS app – effectively allowing the social network to save face by doing it on a ‘voluntary’ basis rather than have Apple ban it. Apple indirectly said that the app violated its privacy rules.
Undeterred, Facebook simply repackaged the app as Facebook Research and then bribed people – teenagers included – to sideload it.
Apple put a stop to that last month by revoking the app’s certificate, but the Android version remained available in the Google Play store.
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