Facebook launching app that pays users for data on usage

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Tuesday launched an app that will pay users to share information with the social media giant about which apps they’re using.

The company previously rolled out two similar apps that tracked what activities people did on their phones. But both were shut down after drawing criticism for infringing on privacy and violating Apple’s App Store guidelines.

Facebook said the new app, called Study, is different from the previous two and was built from scratch. And it is only available on the Google Play Store.

The new app will collect information about which apps people are using and for how long, including which app features are used. That could give Facebook valuable insight into how people use its competitors’ services.

Facebook said it will not track passwords or account IDs and it will periodically remind people that the app is collecting their data.

A previous market-research app from the company, called Research, got in hot water this year when a report found that teens were using it and it was sidestepping Apple’s guidelines. Apple booted it from its app store and Facebook eventually shut it down completely.

The other app, called Onavo Protect, was a virtual private network service used to keep information private in public settings — but it was also collecting information about app usage and sending it to Facebook. That app, too, has been shut down.

Facebook appears to be acting in a more upfront manner this time, said Lance Cottrell, chief scientist for the cybersecurity firm Ntrepid.

“They are being a little less intrusive with this one,” he said, noting that Facebook says it won’t collect some of the more sensitive information from people’s phones such as photos and web searches.

What it will do, Cottrell suspects, is give Facebook further advantage over competitors because it will be able to tell how long apps are being used, and even which features within them are most popular. Facebook already has a step up when setting up such market research, Cottrell said since not many other companies could release a similar service and get as many participants as Facebook is bound to.