You know what Facebook need ? More of your data .

Despite already generating a dumb amount of revenue per individual user thanks to the data they freely share of Facebook ’s suite of apps , the data glutton seem eager to give for some of the valuable entropy about them that it does n’t already have . Facebook unveil the scheme in a Tuesdayannouncementfor its market research product Study , an app that will suck up information about your apps .

According to the company , Study will collect entropy that let in the user ’s apps and single activity names of their features , the sentence spent using them , as well as the user ’s body politic placement , equipment case , and internet name . The party claim it will not collect information like usernames and password or specific content like pic or messages , adding that drug user info wo n’t be used to generate targeted advertizing ( more on that in a minute ) .

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so as to swindle you out of even more data point than you already freely give up when you use Facebook ware , the company say it will “ run ads to promote people to participate in this market enquiry program . ” Interested party will then be prompted to show for Study , and those selected to enter will be able to download Study from the Google Play Store . ( Notably , Facebook say nothing about the app being available on iOS , a saucy decision . ) The company says that participants will be compensated for using cogitation , but it does n’t particularise in what way or how much . A voice for Facebook did not immediately return a asking for comment about its pay role model .

On aseparate pageabout the program , Facebook claims that it will use the information it pull together on participants to “ aid us learn which apps people value and how they ’re used ” and “ well realise our residential district to improve ” its products . I think we can safely infer that this think Facebook plans to continue seek to boss out the contender by either gulping them up orcreatingcopycatsuntil it control well-nigh every aspect of our digital lives .

One of the thing the company notes about the programme is that it will pit the data it collects against other selective information it may have about you , such as your age and gender and presumptively all of the other stuff and nonsense masses deal on the site , such as their political affiliation , relationship status , etc . Together with the data Facebook amass about the way participants use their phones , that gives it a pretty intimate , 360 - degree view of you as a consumer .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

The society may take through some clever wordplay that this data it collects through Study wo n’t be sold or used for targeted ads , but make no mistake that Facebook still design to turn a profit from it . This is , by its very definition , the intention of market inquiry . base on its first - quarter earningsreport , Facebook already makes an average tax income per drug user of about $ 30 in the U.S. and Canada and more than $ 6 per substance abuser worldwide . That ’s possible by just using all the data users proffer up freely . But proffer to cough up money for the knowledgeable detail of your digital living really put this into view . Imagine if Facebook pay you a monthly installation to use its merchandise . A thank you , if you will , for all of the info you partake that it inevitably profits from .

This practice of Facebook recruiting folks to give up access to their phone for chump change also raise the doubt of whether users might think of their data point other than if Facebook were bear for it . Would more masses practice Facebook to collect a small hinderance every month or would it drive home the fact that this is valuable private information that we ’ve been hold away for the prerogative of being mad at loose acquaintances online ?

Facebook ’s data point monopoly apart , I ’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it ’s in all likelihood unwise to hand over more data to a companionship that spills itleftandrightand has yet to demonstrate that it can handle that data in any mensurable way — regardless of whateverprivacy narrativeit now seem to be spinning . deal this “ marketplace research ” with a ten - animal foot pole , folks .

William Duplessie

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