The IT Nerd

You might recall that Facebook and their data harvesting VPN were punted from the Apple App Store because it violated the App Store rules. It now seems that Facebook is fighting back in a very unique way. They’re PAYING people between 13 to 35 up to $20 per month along with referral fees to sideload the Facebook Research app using an enterprise certificate on the iPhone. And this has been going on since 2016. If you’re not familiar with the concept of sideloading, let me explain it this way. On iPhones you can only install apps from the App Store unless they are enterprise certificate that big companies use to install custom apps. Now using an enterprise certificate is legitimate, unless you are doing what Facebook appears to be doing. In any case, TechCrunch exposed Facebook’s “Project Atlas” program that encompasses this. And to cover their tracks, Facebook has been using beta testing services like Applause, BetaBound and uTest to recruit participants to install the Facebook Research app.

Facebook confirmed the program in a statement provided to TechCrunch and said that the Facebook Research app was “in line with Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program,” though that does not seem to be the case based on Apple’s Enterprise Certificate policy. Which means that Facebook is lying. But I guess they had a change of heart as they decided to deep six this program. But only on iOS. It still exists on Android. I’m guessing that Facebook figured out that Apple could simply invalidate the certificate that these scumbags are using seeing as Apple issues these certificates which would put an end to this. So they decided to beat them to the punch and spin it in some positive light when there’s nothing positive here at all.

Here’s the bottom line. Facebook is not to be trusted in any way, shape or form. This is the latest example of this. And at some point they don’t deserve any more chances to be trusted. Instead, they should be wiped out of existence. That should start with Apple punting the Facebook app off the App Store along with anything other apps that Facebook makes.

UPDATE: Apple has apparently revoked the certificate that Facebook used with “Project Atlas” which as a side effect has also killed the ability for Facebook to test pre-release versions of Facebook, Instagram and other apps internally. Plus it’s also taken down employee only apps as well. This apparently is being treated as a 911 event within Facebook. Apple has commented that they did this because Facebook was in “clear breach of their agreement with Apple.” and they had the right to revoke the certificate “which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.”

Sucks to be you Facebook because you deserve this.

This entry was posted on January 30, 2019 at 8:41 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.