Facebook launches paid research app after controversial past efforts

Facebook wants to survey its users’ well-being with a new market research app, having raised eyebrows in recent times with its efforts to track what else people are doing on their phones.

The launch of Viewpoints, which rewards people with money for filling out surveys and testing new products, follows June’s roll-out of Study, an app that monitors what users are doing outside Facebook on Google Android devices.

In a promotional video, Facebook said Viewpoints will help people "shape the future of technology".  The survey will take about 15 minutes and earn you 1000 "points", which are worth $5, TechCrunch reported. The app is only available to people in the US aged 18 or over.

Facebook had previously breached Apple’s App Store guidelines with Facebook Research VPN, an app that was marketed to teenagers as a virtual private network but was also collecting data from iPhones. Because the app used a special software certificate not meant for consumer apps, Apple revoked Facebook’s business privileges.

In February, Facebook shut down another VPN app called Onavo Project, which Apple said also violated its App Store data collection rules.