Facebook's 'Protect' Feature on iOS for iPhone and iPad Lets Company Monitor User Activity

Facebook is launching the Onavo Protect, a Virtual Private Network client made by the company that Facebook has acquired way back in 2013. The feature is now tucked into the Facebook app's menu as "Protect," and could let Facebook monitor user activity even outside its social media app.

Once a Facebook app user receives the update, the new "Protect" option in the menu will redirect users to the Onavo VPN app on the Google Play Store or iOS App Store, as applicable, as Tech Crunch noted.

For its part, Onavo is a little more forthcoming when it comes to its features. The app describes itself as part of Facebook, and says right out that it's used to "improve Facebook products and services, gain insights into the products and service people value, and build better experiences."

As a VPN app, Onavo Protect is designed to route online requests through its own servers, which serves to mask the requests from outside websites and services. Along the way, the company also admits that it collects mobile data traffic, something that makes it essentially a spyware app, as 9 to 5 Mac points out.

This mobile data traffic includes those outside of the Facebook app itself, which might have let the social media platform collect information about other apps, especially those of competing social networks.

"We recently began letting people in the U.S. access Onavo Protect from the Facebook app on their iOS devices," Erez Naveh, Product Manager at Onavo, explained the situation in an email.

"The app may collect your mobile data traffic to help us recognize tactics that bad actors use. Over time, this helps the tool work better for you and others. We let people know about this activity and other ways that Onavo uses and analyses data before they download it," Naveh added.