It is months ago that Facebook was forced to remove the two apps that collected an enormous amount of data for market research. Now the company comes with a new market research app. The app gives users rewards in exchange for feedback.
The new market research app is called Viewpoints and promises to compensate users if they conduct surveys. According to the app you can earn up to $ 600 a year, via PayPal. The precise details are still unknown and some rewards are not money. Facebook announces in a blog post that the first thing that comes up is a well-being survey.
“Information from these surveys will help us deliver better products that reduce negative experiences on social media,” said Facebook.
In the small print, Facebook makes it clear that the research app will be used for much more than just surveys. In addition, the app can also oblige users to perform tasks, deliver demo products or even help improve the company’s artificial intelligence “such as by recording the pronunciation of names to improve speech recognition or tagging images for image recognition to improve.”
It is not clear which other “tasks” will become part of the Viewpoints app, or whether users would ever be asked to provide information about their surfing behavior or app use. The app’s data policy states that the app can collect information from your phone, including your browser type and location data.
Facebook is not the first company to offer this app form of market research, only they are not very positively known for their market research tactics, but Google offers something similar.
Viewpoints comes months after Facebook was forced to remove Onavo, after it became known that the app was collecting data for Facebook. The company used this app to collect information about browser data and to track users such as Whatsapp and Snapchat. Facebook also had to stop another program that paid teens to admit Facebook to their phones.
This time, Facebook is really doing its best not to be scary. The app is marked by Facebook and will explain which information is collected for users to immediately start using the programs. They will also not sell information to third parties.
Whether these guarantees are sufficient to actually download the app and to share further personal information with Facebook is another story. But $ 600 is $ 600 (assuming you can take maximum advantage of Viewpoints ‘programs’). If the past has taught us anything, it is that many people were willing to share much more with Facebook for much less.
