Apple Inc said on Wednesday it had banned Facebook Inc from a program designed to let businesses control iPhones used by their employees, saying the social networking company had improperly used it to track the web-browsing habits of teenagers.
Apple offers what are known as certificates that let businesses have deep controls over iPhones, with the potential to remotely install apps, monitor app usage and access, and delete data owned by a business on an iPhone. Apple designed the program for organisations whose staff use iPhones for official duties, when privacy needs are different from phones for personal use.
Facebook claimed it had secured users' permission and it is not 'spying' as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate.
Facebook also said fewer than 5% of the participants in the program were teens and that all of those teens had signed parental consent forms.
Questions. Just like those forms and declarations that one has to sign when we signed up as a subscriber for a mobile service - how many of us do actually read and know what we are signing for? All large organisations practised this and individuals basically are not given a choice as to whether you can opt out by not signing.
Secondly, how do Facebook ascertained those are legitimate users and is a real person? Could those be hackers masquerading with the objective of gaining an initial entry into those groupings?
Are there any differences between the Apple Certificates and those allegations hurled against Huawei? The western world are alleging that Huawei's equipment are capable of spying even though Huawei has denied it and yet in this instance, Apple is doing it as a business and service legitimately .
