Meta, the platform’s owner, has come to an agreement to settle a legal action against its Onavo privacy app, which was marketed as a way to keep data safe.
It has admitted a privacy app was really supplying it with data about its usersMeta, the operator of social media platform Facebook, has admitted it used data from software marketed to users as a way to keep their personal data safe as a “business intelligence tool” for its own purposes.
But internal documents prepared by Meta and its subsidiary Facebook Israel suggested Onavo user data was being used for another purpose. One document read: “The best part about these apps ... is that it gives us a sample of users who we are able to know nearly everything they are doing on their mobile device.”
, then known as Facebook, in December 2020 over the marketing of Onavo. The ACCC has not made any public comment about the matter since filing its complaint, but documents show the regulator and two Meta subsidiaries – Facebook Israel and Onavo – have reached an agreement for the social media company to pay a $20 million fine.The Meta firms and the ACCC have also agreed that the marketing of Onavo, which was used by about 270,000 local users, was “likely to mislead or deceive”.
“If an Australian user of Onavo Protect had a Facebook account, Meta was able to combine that user’s Onavo Protect Data that it received from Onavo or Facebook Israel with information that Meta maintained about the user’s Facebook account, using an algorithm,” the court filings read. “This information was used to correct for any potential bias ... in the data and to ensure a more accurate representation of the wider population.
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