Apple tells Facebook to remove Onavo Protect app from App Store: Report

Whether it’s a refusal to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter or refusing to list TRAI’s app on the App Store, Apple has always put its consumers’ privacy as their top priority. In another show of its commitment towards consumer safety, the iPhone maker has asked Facebook to pull the Onavo Protect app from the App Store. The reason for the notice is because it reportedly violated Apple's privacy guidelines. Onavo Protect is a mobile virtual private network (VPN) app that provides expertise on mobile app analytics, data compression and management.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple pressured Facebook into removing the app from the store. It informed the social media giant last week that Onavo Protect violated new privacy rules that were implemented back in June. The new rules restrict developers’ ability to create databases out of user information and sell it to third parties. “With the latest update to our guidelines, we made it explicitly clear that apps should not collect information about which other apps are installed on a user's device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing,” an Apple spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Onavo Protect also allegedly violated iOS developer agreement that regulates how app makers make use of data outside the core function of the software. “We’ve always been clear when people download Onavo about the information that is collected and how it is used. As a developer on Apple’s platform, we follow the rules they’ve put in place,” The Verge quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying. Users who have Onavo Protect app downloaded on their iOS devices will not get updates from Facebook. The Android version of the app will remain in Google’s Play Store. Facebook acquired Isreal-based Onavo in 2013.

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