Facebook’s use of the Onavo spyware VPN app it acquired in 2013, and used to inform its 2014 purchase of the then rival WhatsApp messaging platform, is on the radar of Europe’s antitrust regulator, per a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports that the Commission has requested a large volume of internal documents as part of a preliminary investigation into Facebook’s data practices which was announced in December.
The WSJ cites people familiar with the matter who said the regulator’s enquiry is focused on allegations Facebook sought to identify and crush potential rivals and thereby stifle competition by leveraging its access to user data.
Facebook announced it was shutting down Onavo a year ago, in the face of rising controvery about its use of the VPN tool as a data-gathering business intelligence dragnet that’s both hostile to user privacy and raises major questions about anti-competitive practices.
As recently as 2018 Facebook was still actively pushing Onavo at users of its main social networking app, marketing it under a “Protect” banner intended to convince users that the tool would help them protect their information.
In fact, the VPN allowed Facebook to monitor their activity across third party apps, enabling the tech giant to spot emerging trends across the larger mobile ecosystem.
Full Content: Wall Street Journal
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