It just seems like Facebook does not really rest. A few months ago, it was forced to shut down two of its apps. These apps were said to have been used to collect a scary amount of data from Facebook users. The data was collected in the name of market research. Now, a few months later, Facebook is launching a brand new app that has been designed to reward users who give feedback voluntarily.
The app, named Viewpoints, is a market research app that has promised to reward users who fill out surveys, as well as other tasks. The terms of service of Viewpoints claim that users who take part stand a chance to make up to $600 a year. The app will pay the users via PayPal as soon as they have accumulated enough points. At the moment, the exact details of the points system is still not clear enough. However, it is noted in the terms of services that some of the rewards may actually not have a cash value. Facebook said in a blog post that the first program that it will offer is a well-being survey. They went on to say that the information that they will collect would help them to build better products.
Viewpoints’ Terms
In the terms and conditions of the research app, Facebook makes it very clear that the company will use the information collected for more than just surveys. In addition, at other times, users will be required to complete tasks and demo products. Not only that, but the users will be required to help improve Facebook’s AI technology. An example of how that will be done is by “recording the pronunciation of names to improve voice recognition or labelling images to improve image recognition.”
At the moment, it is not clear yet what the other tasks that Facebook is referring to are. Also, we are not sure if they are actually part of Viewpoints. That’s not all, the app has not made it clear yet whether it will ask for your personal data, app usage, or browsing habits. At the same time, the data policy of the app does state that it can actually collect users’ information from their phones, which include their location data, and the type of browser that they will be using.
Google users will not find Viewpoint totally new. This is because Google also rewards users for taking surveys, as well as partaking in other market research. However, previous market research tactics from Facebook have actually been criticized before. Just months ago, Facebook was forced to shut down Onavo, which was a virtual private network. This followed a lot of criticism from a number of people that the app was the company’s spyware. This was after people discovered that the app was used to collect users’ information such as their browsing history. Not only that, but the app also tracked its competitors like WhatsApp and Instagram.
That’s not all. Again, a few months ago, the company was forced to end one of its market research programs that a lot thought appeared shady.in the market research program, Facebook offered money to teens for allowing the social media company to spy on their phones.
