The market regulator in Australia has filed a lawsuit against Facebook. That would have tricked its users with the free security app Onavo.
The app provided secure connections (VPN) so that users’ data would remain “private, protected and secret.” Still, in reality, Onavo itself was collecting all data that Facebook could monetize, says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Via Onavo, Facebook could see, among other things, which sites users visited. The security app also kept track of which apps people were using and saw, to the second, how long people used each app.
“Through Onavo Protect, Facebook collected and used the detailed and valuable data about the personal activities of thousands of Australians for its own commercial purposes.
This is entirely against the promise of protection, secrecy and privacy with which Facebook promoted the app,” said the ACCC.
