Sheryl Sandberg: The teens consented

Photo: Thibault Camus (AP)
On Tuesday, news broke via TechCrunch that Facebook ran a sketchy “Research” program involving paid participants who downloaded an app onto their phones that was capable of monitoring virtually everything that they did—including in some cases teens as young as 13, who were recruited via social media ads that appeared designed to keep Facebook’s involvement low-profile. Facebook had also originally told TechCrunch that the Research app was not in violation of Apple enterprise developer certificate policies, and early Wednesday morning, a Facebook spokesperson declined to explain to Gizmodo why it was pulling the app if that was the case. Conversely, BBC reporter Dave Lee tweeted that he was able to sign up for Facebook’s Research program and told to download the app using a birthday in 2005, all without being asked for any kind of parental consent form at all.

Source: gizmodo.com