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Apple has decided to kick Facebook Research app from the App Store on Wednesday. After this move, Apple further went on and revoked Facebook’s other enterprise certificates which involve prohibiting them from distributing apps outside the App Store. Facebook’s data collection practice was exposed earlier this week and they are already facing the consequences as they should.
Facebook’s shady activities were first uncovered by TechCrunch just months after Apple banned the Onavo Protect app from Facebook because it was violating the Apple guidelines.
Breach of Agreement by Facebook Research App
An Apple executive reported that
“We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.”
Other Facebook Apps affected
Apple did not stop here, even though the Facebook Research app was the only culprit. Apple has revoked other apps that are owned by Facebook as well. In a massive ban, Apple has revoked certificates from Facebook for all the beta versions. Including Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram as well in the iOS. Even an employee transportation app was reportedly not accessible on Apple devices after the massive ban.
All of the apps mentioned above have stopped working on Apple devices after Apple has handed the massive ban on Facebook.
Facebook has pulled the plug from the Research app on iOS. They have tried to justify the existence of the app in the first place. Facebook has said that nothing was hidden and they were not trying to “spy” on the Apple users. Neither they were not technically spying on Apple users.
Source: Tech Times,
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