Apple to Facebook: Your cookies are poison to us

Technology

Published: August 23, 2018 11:10 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 6:56 pm

When did the trade press become so protective of user data?

The Wall Street Journal ($) had the scoop, the fast-followers had the attitude (emphases mine):

Cult of Mac: Apple forces Facebook VPN out of App Store for stealing user data
Inquirer: Facebook pulls its data-slurping Onavo VPN app from iOS
Forbes: Apple Pressures Facebook To Remove Its Data Farming VPN From The App Store
BGR: Stop using the creepy iPhone VPN app that Apple just forced Facebook to pull
Mashable: Facebook to pull its creepy VPN Onavo from App Store after Apple pushback
iMore: Apple shuts down Facebook’s ‘Onavo’ iOS app and activity snooper

A sampler from the twittersphere:

Onavo is the VPN app that Facebook uses to decide what companies to either buy or copy their best features by looking at which sites/apps users are visiting via VPN. Not illegal but quite an ethical gray zone. Interesting that Apple has decided to ban it https://t.co/lIwSBBZk0k

— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) August 22, 2018

33 million people need to brush up on privacy and security STAT

I’m…not really even sure how they thought they were being protected, when Onavo was literally packet-sniffing the “secured” data passing through THE ENTIRE TIME. “We’re Facebook, trust us”https://t.co/xsQewhbfuc

— AAPL Tree (@AAPLTree) August 22, 2018

In June @markgurman and I told you that Apple’s new app store rules could be targeting Facebook’s Onavo. https://t.co/KdCQHECC2j Now, consequences: https://t.co/1D1SsuqFg7

— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) August 22, 2018

I remember meeting Onavo in a Tel Aviv hotel lobby years ago, back before they launched. Impossible to imagine back then it would eventually become Facebook’s user espionage tool.

— Martin Bryant (@MartinSFP) August 22, 2018

There is an alternate history version of this story where Apple does this back in 2013 when it mattered, and when FB couldn’t use the data as intelligently to learn, grow and “borrow” from other companies https://t.co/dvGIX4ETwe

— Josh Elman (@joshelman) August 23, 2018

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