Facebook created an APP called Onavo which is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and it’s free and a lot of Facebook users have downloaded the APPLE and Android versions.

A VPN is way to keep your identification and IP address confidential and it encrypts all data passed between your browser and any websites you visit while using the VPN.

People use VPNs to protect their privacy so what do Facebook do? They thought it was a good idea to collect all of the data passed through the VPN software and use it for their own purposes.

They were caught out because this breaks the rules that APPLE impose on all APPS registered on iTunes so APPLE told Facebook to remove the Onavo APP from their APP store.

The word ‘private’ in Virtual Private Network should have told Facebook that its users want privacy – and that definitely includes privacy from Facebook which should not have been recording the users actions and using that data.

Mark Zuckerberg claims in court and on TV that he’s so sorry that Facebook has made mistakes and will learn from these problems. But they appear to simply carry on with the same disregard for people’s privacy.

Apple’s strong commitment to protecting user data and privacy led them to update the privacy guidelines with a ban on apps that “collect information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing.”

Onavo is still on Google’s APP store – let’s hope Google wakes up to this and removes the Facebook APP.

Be warned – if you use Onavo it will spy on you.
It’s better to find a more reputable VPN.

Do Share this post on social media – click on the post title then scroll down to the social media share buttons.