STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Embarrassments continue for Facebook over its collection of users' data. Both Facebook and Google have been offering cash and gift incentives to users, persuading them to share information about almost everything people do on their phones. At least in this case, unlike some others, Facebook did ask first. But some targeted users were as young as 13, which is awkward. Although, apparently, it's only awkward up to a point for Facebook because the company also posted record profits on Wednesday. NPR's Jasmine Garsd reports.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: According to an investigative report by the news site TechCrunch, Facebook has been paying young users up to $20 a month to install a Facebook research app since 2016. It gives Facebook unlimited access to their phones. Katie Moussouris is the founder and CEO of Luta, a cybersecurity company. She says Facebook's motivation is that it's losing ground among young people.
KATIE MOUSSOURIS: If teenagers are sharing a lot of memes, Facebook would then say, OK. You know what? We should build something into the platform that lets you share memes a lot easier. And then maybe we can attract those users back.
GARSD: This is not the first time Facebook is accused of going to extreme lengths to get user data. Back in 2013, Facebook bought a company called Onavo and allegedly used the Onavo app to get more information about a competitor, the messaging platform WhatsApp, which Facebook ultimately bought. The term corporate espionage was thrown around. And Apple was not happy that all this was happening on its app store. Here's Apple CEO Tim Cook on MSNBC indirectly chastising Facebook's disregard for privacy.
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TIM COOK: We could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer. But you are not our product.
GARSD: Apple forced Facebook to remove Onavo from the app store, but Facebook came right back under a different guise. Will Strafach is a mobile security researcher. He studied the app for TechCrunch's recent expose.
WILL STRAFACH: To use it this way and under their own name is just amazing to me because I don't understand what they thought they were doing or how they thought they could get away with this.
GARSD: Apple has banned Facebook's research app. And it's clearly not happy about what happened yet again. It was widely reported yesterday that Apple dropped some of Facebook's in-house apps - apps that Facebook employees use to look up bus schedules and lunch menus. Facebook is not the only tech company to be caught in this way. Yesterday, Google pulled the app Screenwise Meter, which basically collects information on how people use the Internet. And while a lot of users might find this shocking, Katie Moussouris from Luta Security is not surprised. What she does wonder about is a generation that would give any amount of access to their private lives. She gets why.
MOUSSOURIS: Some of these children have grown up with virtually no privacy at all. Their photos were shared by their parents, by their families before they could ever consent to it. So I think for them, it feels - it probably feels like there's nothing left to hide.
GARSD: You want big tech to change its behavior. Time and again, it hasn't. Moussouris says change will come from users figuring out when enough is enough. Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York.
INSKEEP: And in the interest of full disclosure, we note that Facebook is an NPR underwriter.