After Facebook’s shifty data collection, Apple disables its internal apps

Facebook employees who use iOS devices no longer have access to their internal-use applications after Apple revoked the company’s Enterprise Certificate.

Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier confirmed with the company that the lock-out impacts transportation, product testing and other functions. That likely means no software updates to its iOS apps and loss of productivity for the time being.

Facebook confirms that ALL its employee-only internal iOS apps (the apps testing every product in the works, as well as internal employee resource apps, for transportation etc) are offline. They say they’re trying to negotiate with Apple right now.

— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) January 30, 2019

Facebook’s publicly-available apps such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp remain available on the App Store.

TechCrunch reported on Facebook’s distribution of a VPN app called “Research” that was seeded to beta program recruitment sites like Applause and BetaBound. The app collected all device and internet traffic data including private messages and geolocation.

Where the social media company ruffled Apple’s feathers was that beta participants were made to circumvent the App Store by installing the Enterprise Certificate, a clearance intended for members of an organization to access apps for internal use only.

In 2017, Facebook shut down its public data-collecting VPN app, Onavo, when the App Store began requiring app publishers to post privacy policies within their products.

Facebook is negotiating with Apple to reinstate its certificate privileges. It does not expect to face consequences from Google, even as it maintains the Android version of its beta-distributed app.

This afternoon, the company reported operating income of $6.88 billion for the fourth quarter, about $1 billion above market forecasts. FB shares are up by more than 12 percent at press time on that news.

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