Facebook app spies on users

THE feature is meant to ensure your safety but in reality it may be tracking your every move.

Facebook users are being warned not to let the social network “snoop on your conversations” with its new security app.

The app gives the social network access to everything users do on their smartphones and uses the data to “improve Facebook services”.

Onavo Protect app, which is free to use and owned by Facebook, was recently launched to Australian users inside the menu of Facebook’s Apple iPhone app.

The independent app offers to “keep you and your data safe when you browse and share information on the web”.

But what is not immediately clear is that it can spy on your browsing habits.

Bitdefender senior e-threat analyst Bogdan Botezatu said he was “baffled, and a little bit appalled” that any social network would seek to collect and analyse users’ smartphone use so overtly, and warned Facebook users to avoid the app.

“It is intrusive and you’re basically giving up your privacy to protect your privacy from hackers,” he said.