News article: Facebook promotes a VPN under the Onavo brand that collects even more data on you

[LZ1 672]

Hello!

 

I thought this piece of news was interesting and it underscores that it's important to look at who owns what and to read the terms, not just look at technical features or marketing text.

 

It seems quite cynical for FB to run this thing.

[Guest]

> It seems quite cynical for FB to run this thing.

 

Not really. Silicon Valley is in an arms race to mop up as much data as physically possible. This is no different to the datally app google made here.

 

They all want you to use 'their' apps which use a VPN connection since ALL of your traffic gets routed through their servers, and they can literally MITM or do whatever they please whether legal or not (because who is going to say 'no you can't make a VPN app').

 

Obviously you'd never install this as a sensible person, but they will get a lot of 'fools' using this who don't really care about their privacy. And of course, if you happen to send a text to anyone using this, FB will get your information too, so it's basically a proxy even if you're not on FB. Once they have 'enough' people using this they can gather data on A LOT of people who may have never even touched FB in their lives.

 

Such fun times we live in ey?

[LZ1 672]

 

> It seems quite cynical for FB to run this thing.

 

Not really. Silicon Valley is in an arms race to mop up as much data as physically possible. This is no different to the datally app google made here.

 

They all want you to use 'their' apps which use a VPN connection since ALL of your traffic gets routed through their servers, and they can literally MITM or do whatever they please whether legal or not (because who is going to say 'no you can't make a VPN app').

 

Obviously you'd never install this as a sensible person, but they will get a lot of 'fools' using this who don't really care about their privacy. And of course, if you happen to send a text to anyone using this, FB will get your information too, so it's basically a proxy even if you're not on FB. Once they have 'enough' people using this they can gather data on A LOT of people who may have never even touched FB in their lives.

 

Such fun times we live in ey?

 

Well said. I just think it's cynical how it can create an association between tools which should help people stay more secure, with the exact opposite, of insecurity .

 

But you're right it's quite a smart thing for them to do in many ways.