NICOLE KOBIE
Facebook’s Study app wants more information on users, but should it pay for what it’s hoovered up already?
Facebook’s Study app wants more information on users, but should the company pay for what it’s hoovered up already first?
Facebook wants to pay for your private data. No, not the information it already has on you – it took that for free and the social network certainly isn’t offering back pay.
The pay-for-data scheme is via a new app called Study. So far, it’s invite-only and limited to Google Android devices. Install the app and it will hoover up data about the other apps installed on your phone, including how much time you spend using them and what you’re doing with each app. It will also nab details such as the country you live in, what type of device you use and what network you’re on; it doesn’t look for passwords or read messages.
In short, Facebook wants to know what you’re up to, digitally speaking, when you’re not on Facebook. But why? The official line is this: “Your info helps us learn which apps people value and how they’re used.” None of the data will be sold on or be used to target adverts. Facebook hasn’t said just how much it will pay users yet, although a previous version called Facebook Research – which collected a wider range of data, including photos and messages – doled out $20 per month in the form of gift cards. However, the Facebook Research app was banned from the Apple App Store for wiggling past privacy protections, and also attracted criticism for targeting adverts for the app at underage teenagers.
Paying for data is complicated. On one hand, it would be nice to be rewarded for all the content we’ve created on social networks, and for
all of the useful marketing information we have helped such companies gather. But, on the other hand, privacy shouldn’t just be the preserve of the rich.
And right now, in some ways, it is. While there’s no charge to delete Facebook, protecting your privacy comes at a cost. The most notable examples are Apple and Android phones. The former usually cost more, which is partially because Apple isn’t propping up its bottom line with advertising – unlike Google. However, you should keep in mind that using an iPhone doesn’t keep Facebook, Google or anyone else from tracking you online or building up a marketing profile about your shopping habits.
But let’s look at it from the other angle. If we’re generating data and would like to earn some cash by sharing it, then why not? While it’s certainly dodgy for Facebook to target ads at teenagers encouraging them to download an app to collect their private information, it does reinforce the lesson that their private data is something of value and that it has worth.
The Study app aside, there has long been a call for social networks and web services to give users the choice to pay for a privacy-focused version, rather than assuming that we’re willing to offer up our data in an unspoken Faustian pact. It would mean that, instead of Facebook obsessing about which apps we use, we could pay it to let us get on with scrolling past family updates. And, instead of Google surveilling us across the web, we could just hand over our payment card details to download a snoop
free version of Chrome. It would certainly be an interesting experiment in what we’re willing to pay for online – and it could help solve a tricky problem for me.
You see, I would like to leave Facebook, but it’s difficult to quit when your extended family communicates via the site. While I could just quit Facebook, that will probably just make my faraway friends think I’ve blocked them. If they pull the plug then so can I, but if things stay as they are, with a “free” service underpinned by our communal data giveaway, there’s no reason for them to leave.
I see two ways out. One: what if they were forced to pay for privacy? Perhaps the difficult dilemma of paying or selling their data would finally be enough to get them to see their data as valuable – and realise that their privacy is being abused by Facebook. That may be enough to encourage them to quit the site entirely. If the only way to use Facebook safely and privately is to pay, I’m hoping they will choose to delete their accounts.
My second solution? Forget about waiting for Facebook to pay us the value of our data, or at least give us a choice of free access versus protecting our data. Instead, I could simply give my family $20 a month in gift cards to leave the site. It’s expensive, but it may just be worth it.
Instead of Google surveilling us across the web, we could just hand over our card details to download a snoop-free version of Chrome
Perhaps the difficult dilemma of paying or selling their data would finally be enough to get my family to see their data as valuable