Facebook used a VPN application developed by an Israeli firm it owns to track the popularity of its competitors, according to emails between executives at the firm released today by the UK Parliament.
“Facebook used Onavo to conduct global surveys of the usage of mobile apps by customers, and apparently without their knowledge. They used this data to assess not just how many people had downloaded apps, but how often they used them,” writes Conservative MP Damian Collins, who chairs Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
Collins says Facebook used this information “to decide which companies to acquire, and which to treat as a threat.”
Charts compiled by Facebook that were released by the committee show that in 2013 WhatsApp had become more popular than the social media giant’s own Messenger app. Facebook later purchased WhatsApp in 2014.
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
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