Australia sues Facebook for slurping user data from Onavo Protect VPN app
- Reference: 1608101886
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/12/16/australia_sues_facebook_over_onavo_vpn/
- Source link:
The suit rests on the behaviour of Onavo Protect, a VPN app that Facebook [1]acquired in 2013 and said would protect users’ privacy.
But by 2018 security analysts [2]asserted that the app actually sent quite a lot of data to Facebook and pointed out that Onavo’s T&Cs permitted it to route all user data through its servers and to analyse data.
Onavo Protect later disappeared from Apple’s App Store after Cupertino changed its rules to [3]ban the app . Google Play binned Onavo in 2019.
Australia’s beef with Facebook alleged it “misled Australian consumers by representing that the Onavo Protect app would keep users’ personal activity data private, protected and secret, and that the data would not be used for any purpose other than providing Onavo Protect’s products.”
Australia starts second fight with Google, this time over whether app stores leak data, gouge devs, steal ideas and warp markets [4]READ MORE
The ACCC cited Apple’s and Google’s expulsion of Onavo Protect and said the app actually “collected, aggregated and used significant amounts of users’ personal activity data for Facebook’s commercial benefit. This included details about Onavo Protect users’ internet and app activity, such as records of every app they accessed and the number of seconds each day they spent using those apps.”
Facebook deprived Australian consumers of the opportunity to make an informed choice about the collection and use of their personal activity data
“Consumers often use VPN services because they care about their online privacy, and that is what this Facebook product claimed to offer. In fact, Onavo Protect channelled significant volumes of their personal activity data straight back to Facebook,” said ACCC chair Rod Sims.
And because users of VPNs have an expectation of privacy, he reckons Facebook’s conduct “deprived Australian consumers of the opportunity to make an informed choice about the collection and use of their personal activity data by Facebook and Onavo.”
Off to court, then, where the ACCC will seek pecuniary penalties and declarations from Facebook that it was very naughty and won’t do this again.
Which is just what Mark Zuckerberg says every time his behaviour-mining ad-pusher breaches privacy, allows fake news to spread, ignores genocidal urgings or is subverted by determined trolls. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/14/facebook_acquires_onavo/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/07/facebook_onavo_protect_doesnt_protect_against_facebook/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/08/23/onavo_vpn_pulled_from_ios/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/08/australia_starts_second_fight_with/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Whether or not someone else also does it is completely irrelevant.
I assume you're trolling.
They aren’t suing Microsoft and that’s relevant.
I assume you’re trolling.
Facebook is worse
Than Microsoft has ever been.
Zuck is an odious human being. Nothing more needs to be said.
At least you can easily avoid having anything to do with the Redmond Mafia.
The Facebook Cult is harder to ignore. That little 'f' on millions of web pages is their (Facebook's) gateway into your life. You can block it but it takes effort and skills that most people simply don't have.
Normalised behaviour
If a company popped out of nowhere and did this they would be pilloried. For Facebook this is normalised behaviour for which they get no punishment.
Society works because most people play by most of the rules most of the time, occasionally aberrants pop up who have no moral compass or self-restraint and they just walk over everything.
I personally will be glad when the house of cards of facebook collapses.
You missed a bit
From the article:
Australia’s beef with Facebook alleges it “misled Australian consumers by representing that the Onavo Protect app would keep users’ personal activity data private, protected and secret, and that the data would not be used for any purpose other than providing Onavo Protect’s products.”
It's not the data collection that's the problem, it's the misrepresentation. Microsoft's "we collect your data, and you only get an off switch if you're an Enterprise" position was relatively open. The legal status of not having an off switch, and defaulting to 'on', is another debate entirely.
[1]Here we go again with the [2]Facebook-logo-reflected-the-wrong-way-round-in-someone's-eye trope. Shouldn't this go the way of the [3]hoodie hacker trope?
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2018/10/31/shutterstock_facebook_panic.jpg?x=648&y=324&crop=1
[2] https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=facebook+eye+reflection&atb=v164-1&kp=1&iax=images&ia=images
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/28/cybersecurity_stock_image_challenge/
It stayed some kind of private ,fecesbook kept the data for itself... maybe.
For the ones believing feck!book promises, I've got an Eiffel tower to sell, and I can also make you young forever, bring back your lover who left, and cure any disease known or not. Just trust me.
“deprived Australian consumers of the opportunity to make an informed choice"
I'm sorry, they made the choice to use a Facebook product. Don't tell me they're not aware of what Facebook is. There are largely enough posts about The Zuck for people to know exactly what it is that Facebook does : mine your life.
> This included details about Onavo Protect users’ internet and app activity, such as records of every app they accessed and the number of seconds each day they spent using those apps.
Isn’t that what Microsoft collects from Windows users by default (and full browsing history if using Edge)?