Apple has escalated its war against Facebook and its privacy practices, after the social-networking was found breaking its rules and distributing a secret data-collection app to consumers.
In response, Apple cut off Facebook's ability to offer the tool and test early, unreleased versions of its consumer-facing apps, an unprecedented move against one of its Silicon Valley peers that quickly revived criticism that Facebook has failed to protect its users' privacy.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken a hard stance against Facebook’s collection of personal information through iPhones.Credit:AP
Apple's decision to punish Facebook reflects an intensifying war between the two companies over privacy. The iPhone giant's chief executive, Tim Cook, has faulted Facebook for its data-collection practices since the revelations in 2018 that it mishandled 87 million users' personal data in a scandal that since has become the subject of a US federal investigation.
Last year, Cook broadly slammed social-networking companies in a speech for creating a "data industrial complex" that allows those firms to "know you better than you may know yourself." In the meantime, Cook has called on US Congress to adopt sweeping new limits on how companies collect and monetise consumers' personal information.
Some US lawmakers sharply rebuked Facebook in response to the reports about its data-tracking app. "Wiretapping teens is not research, and it should never be permissible," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said in a statement. "This is yet another astonishing example of Facebook's complete disregard for data privacy and eagerness to engage in anti-competitive behaviour."
Facebook said it is shutting down the app to Apple customers, and did not respond to questions about if it is still operating the same app for Android users.
Last year, Facebook yanked a data-security app called Onavo from the app store after Apple ruled the app violated its data collection policies. Onavo, which was billed as a virtual private network designed to keep users safe from malicious websites, allowed Facebook to track and analyse users' activity on their phones, the Wall Street Journal reported, giving the company insight into rival apps and new software offerings.
Strafach, the security expert, found Facebook's research app contained a significant amount of code from the Onovo app.
The latest privacy-related issue at Facebook comes on the same day the company has reported its quarterly earnings. Ad sales rose 30 per cent to $US16.64 billion ($23 billion) in the fourth quarter, while costs, bolstered by moves to fight misinformation and fallout from data and privacy rows, rose 62 per cent to $US9.09 billion. Total revenue rose to $US16.91 billion, slightly beating analyst estimates.
Washington Post, with staff reporters
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