Facebook security app used to 'spy' on competitors (2019)
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
" Since the acquisition, Onavo was frequently classified as being spyware, as the VPN was used to monetize application usage data collected within an allegedly privacy-focused environment. In August 2018, Facebook pulled Onavo Protect from the iOS App Store due to violations of Apple's policy forbidding apps from collecting data on the usage of other apps. In February 2019, in response to criticism over a Facebook market research program employing similar techniques (including, in particular, being targeted towards teens), Onavo announced that it would sunset the Android version of Protect as well. "
e: not instagram
I'd be especially interested to hear any insider perspectives, from any $bigcorp
edit: It was generally a very weird job and this was probably one of the least odd incidents.
Apologies for steering your thread into charged political territory, but this is one of the biggest reasons I think Zuck and other Valley CEO-types love the H-1B system so much and constantly seek to expand the H-1B cap, e.g. Zuck's "FWD.us" PAC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FWD.us
Disagreeing with one's boss will always have a "filter" when it can mean having to leave the country if tensions escalate into something employment-ending. Why risk it when you can just write the code, collect your pay, and get to live another day in the country you call home? I could never blame someone for making that safe choice.
Disclaimer: this is not a criticism of any H-1B individuals, many of whom I am lucky to count as my inspirations, peers, and friends :)
Firstly, the whole 60 days thing is NONSENSE
Your status ends ASAP. The day your job is ended
Secondly, getting H1B transferred is not automatic. You have to get lawyers and have to get it approved
Thirdly, now with so much talk of H1B being ended, and slow approvals, who will take the chance
Fourthly, most H1B are India and China. Both countries' tech firms and countries in general are being attacked by US Government as 'taking US jobs' etc
So all those H1Bs are particularly worried
H1B is basically bonded labor
everyone fixates on - you are taking US jobs and bad mouths them
they are coming here (to the West) to get a good life for themselves
If they do anything that their employer doesn't like, they are screwed and must go back to their home country and give up on their American Dream
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To give you an idea of how crazy it is, I got a 44% salary increase when switching jobs (H1B to H1B)
That's life as an H1B. You are usually being paid 40% to 60% less than comparable skilled Americans
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It is a system set up to HEAVILY FAVOR companies. That's why FB, Goog, Etc are screaming about 'competitiveness' . What they really want is
underpaid, trapped, bonded labor who have no choice when it comes to where they work
With extra long H1B and Green Card approval, they are getting 22 to 28 year olds who will have to work for them for 10 to 14 years (if India or China)
What company wouldn't want such amazing terms for hiring people
The government literally published a rule in 2017 that literally includes a 60 day grace period. Not sure how much I should take your statements as factual rather than emotionally tainted beyond recognition when you don't know (or omit on purpose) something like that.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/11/18/2016-27...
As for why they'd be okay with working on it -- well, the world is not so black and white. I think many people would consider a free VPN that collects statistics on what apps you use to be a fair tradeoff. There are many circumstances where being able to hide your activity from your government / employer / ISP / whoever is more important than some random third party knowing what apps you're using.
It was eventually changed to "Onavo Protect, from Facebook" a few years later: https://i.imgur.com/wSZwc8i.jpg
Then they even later tried paying teenagers to be spied on and had Apple shut down their enterprise app-provisioning certificate which was pretty amusing.
Exactly why no privacy-focused individual should touch something Facebook made under pretenses of privacy with a ten-foot pole.