Author: Manish Singh / Source: VentureBeat
Facebook is ending a controversial research program on Apple devices hours after it was reported that the social media giant has been paying teens to monitor their smartphone usage.
The company has been running a program to collect user data from paid volunteers for the past three years as part of a research project, TechCrunch reported late Tuesday. As one aspect of the program, Facebook was targeting users between the ages of 13 and 25, the report said.
Documentation on the website of Centercode, one of the third-party beta testing services carrying out the research on Facebook’s behalf, suggests that users in multiple markets, including India, participated as test subjects at different stages of time.
Responding to the report, a Facebook spokesperson challenged the report’s characterizations of the Facebook Research app. “Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing ‘secret’ about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App,” the spokesperson said.
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