Facebook has announced a new paid market research program called “Study” under which the company will be paying users to monitor how they use their phone. Currently, it is limited to Android users only.
The Study app will monitor the apps installed on the phone, the time spent using those apps, user’s location, and additional app data that could reveal specific features the users are using, among other things. The company says that it won’t see any specific content, including messages, passwords, and websites the users visit.
This comes just a few months after the company shut down its user-tracking research app due to various controversies. In 2018, Facebook was accused of exploiting a loophole in Apple’s privacy regulations to gain deeper access to the phone, which violated Apple’s rules.
With this new “Study” program, the company is making it clear what their purpose is with the user-research program. The app will only be available to people aged 18 and above and will be able to opt out at any time. However, the company hasn’t said anything about compensation that users will be receiving.
The company will soon run an advertising campaign in India and the US. Interested users can then register and download the app from the Play Store. Once they sign up, users will see a description of how the app works and what information they’ll be sharing.
