INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook is drawing additional controversy over its Research Program, that collected data on teens through its Onavo VPN app, now that
TechCrunch has revealed that the social networking giant misreported the number of users in the program.When the news initially broke, the
However, this has been proven to be incorrect thanks to Facebook's responses to a letter from US Senator Mark Warner on the issue.The
senator wrote to CEO Mark Zuckberg about how its Research Program specifically targeted teens and their mobile data usage which it obtained
by paying users to install a VPN which spied on them.Facebook's VP of US public policy Kevin Martin responded to the senator's questions,
Research Program when TechCrunch first discovered it as opposed to the total percentage of teens who had been involved throughout the
lifespan of the program.The social network faced further scrutiny when Senator Martin grilled them on the issue of parental consent forms
According to Facebook, all participants under 18 signed parental consent forms when first joining the program but in reality the teens who
participated just had to check a box to claim that they had parental consent which is quite different from how it first explained the
registration process.So to recap, in addition to lying about the nature of its Research Program to begin with, the company also knowingly
targeted teens without their parents' permission.At a time when Facebook is still dealing with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and was
recently slammed by the UK government, the company will likely have to address its Research Program formally to show regulators and
consumers alike that it should be trusted with user data at all.Via TechCrunch
