Facebook is Pushing Its Data-tracking Onavo VPN Within Its Main Mobile App (techcrunch.com)

TechCrunch reports: Onavo Protect, the VPN client from the data-security app maker acquired by Facebook back in 2013, has now popped up in the Facebook app itself, under the banner "Protect" in the navigation menu. Clicking through on "Protect" will redirect Facebook users to the "Onavo Protect -- VPN Security" app's listing on the App Store. We're currently seeing this option on iOS only, which may indicate it's more of a test than a full rollout here in the U.S. Marketing Onavo within Facebook itself could lead to a boost in users for the VPN app, which promises to warn users of malicious websites and keep information secure as you browse. But Facebook didn't buy Onavo for its security protections. Instead, Onavo's VPN allow Facebook to monitor user activity across apps, giving Facebook a big advantage in terms of spotting new trends across the larger mobile ecosystem. For example, Facebook gets an early heads up about apps that are becoming breakout hits; it can tell which are seeing slowing user growth; it sees which apps' new features appear to be resonating with their users, and much more. Further reading: Do Not, I Repeat, Do Not Download Onavo, Facebook's Vampiric VPN Service (Gizmodo).

Comments

Re:What does a vpn provide over https

[Anonymous Coward]

It allows Facebook to track ALL of your traffic, not just Facebook traffic. I'm guessing this VPN also installs a CA Certificate that allows them to MITM all of your traffic.

Re:What does a vpn provide over https

[CodeHog]

It depends on the vpn. I suspect in this case the answer is no, not really any better than https. If you want 'secure' vpn look for ones that log nothing. And use HTTPS and don't use their DNS. https://www.pcmag.com/article2...