The Facebook security application used to "spy on" competitors

A report from a Commons committee described the detailed use by Facebook of an app to "spy on" users.

The multi-stakeholder group said Facebook was using its Onavo virtual private network (VPN) application to gather information about its competitors.

MEPs say Facebook "deliberately and knowingly violates data privacy and competition laws".

The report, which is over 100 pages long, also details the influence of false news on the site during elections.

Competitor monitoring

The Committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sports wrote that through the use of Onavo, supposed to provide users with an extra level of security, Facebook could "collect data from all over the world. use of the application of its customers to evaluate not only the number of applications downloaded, but how often they used them ".

The report adds, "This knowledge helped them select successful companies and provided them with valuable information about their potential competitors, who could then acquire these companies or close the ones they deemed unsafe."

A chart that the committee includes in the report shows an badysis of data collected with Onavo, detailing how applications were used by Facebook's services and those of its competitors.

In 2013, Facebook proposed to buy its rival Snapchat for $ 3 billion. He had acquired Instagram a year earlier for $ 1 billion.

In 2014, the company successfully acquired WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in cash and stock.

Limit of the vine

The report also details how the company could deny its competitors access to its services.

For example, in 2013, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was informed of the launch of the Vine video service by his Twitter rival.

He was informed by email that Twitter was going to allow Vine users to find friends on Facebook.

"Unless someone raises objections, we will close the API access of their friends as early as today." the e-mail read – a gesture that would prevent Vine users from inviting their Facebook friends to the service.

Zuckerberg accepted the move, replying "Yeah, go for it."

Twitter finally chose to close Vine in 2016.

Whitelist

According to the report, in November 2013, more than 5,000 apps on Facebook had been "whitelisted", which allowed them to gain privileged access to user data and that of their Facebook friends.

Whitelisted companies include the Lyft, Airbnb and Netflix apps.

An internal email raised the possibility of linking up $ 250,000 a year in advertising to keep the company's access to users' Facebook data.

An email from Zuckerberg, sent in October 2012, exposed his skepticism about the risk of data leakage between Facebook application developers.

"I think we're disclosing information to developers, but I just can not think of cases where the data leaked from developer to developer and caused a real problem for us," he wrote.

Last year, Facebook, the UK guard dog in charge of data protection, fined Facebook £ 500,000 for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The Information Commissioner's office said the social media giant had given developers access to user data "without clear consent".

Cambridge Analytica used user data collected through a personality questionnaire to profile potential voters.