Facebook has long tracked the information of its many hundreds of millions of users without their permission. Some of them have been aware that their information was being monitored, though not to the extent or breadth that Facebook was actually skimming their usage data. Either way, Facebook has wrongfully spied on its users while using Facebook, Messenger, doing virtually anything else, and even tuned into the activities of its users’ personal contacts!
Data has been referred to as the next commodity that will be as big, in-demand, and as valuable as oil. Right now, although it’s not as quite as expensive as fossil fuels and their outputs, data is still one of the hottest commodities right now – and that certainly isn’t changing anytime soon.
As such, Facebook is always going to be interested in acting as the proverbial parent over the shoulders of its users, carefully monitoring what they do at all times.
Now, however, Facebook seems to be interested in paying people money to study how they use their mobile devices, Facebook, Messenger, and everything else digital that they own or have access to, as opposed to wrongfully, immorally taking its users’ personal, private data.
Yesterday – on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 – Facebook announced that it would immediately be releasing a mobile app that would compensate its users with cold, hard cash in exchange for handing over the information directly to Facebook about their mobile app usage.
Although it isn’t clear what the app will be used for in the future – in terms of what other types of data that Facebook will be interested in one day, that is – Facebook has made clear that it will likely continue using the app, along with compensating the app’s users, to garner info from them.
The app, Study, is currently available for download on the Google Play Store for devices that support the Android mobile operating system. Although more people use Apple’s iOS mobile operating system than Android, Study still is only available for Android devices right now.
Some may remember that Facebook already tried to come out with such an app on two occasions, though they violated Apple’s rules and were subsequently removed from contention. This app has been fine-tuned so that it wouldn’t break any rules – one of the measures Facebook has taken is simply avoiding the Apple App Store altogether.
