Remember the 2016 general elections situation in Uganda. When the government ordered telecommunications regulator UCC to revoke mobile money and social media access in the country, Google play registered thousands of VPN downloads from Uganda. Well, as many people still rely on VPNs for better security and anonymous browsing on the internet. Facebook’s new Onavo VPN will keep track of your general browsing behaviors.
Onavo Protect is a new VPN developed and managed by Facebook. As the app’s description reads that “Onavo collects your mobile data traffic to help us improve and operate the service”, it means not only does the VPN keep track of your browsing behaviors, but also shares recorded data with Facebook.
As Onavo protect points out that it’s part of Facebook and uses captured information to improve the company’s products and services.The app doesn’t just help keep you and your data safe together with granting you full access to any website. But also keeps track of all your browsing behaviors as directly shared with the Social Media giant.
All data received through the Onavo VPN app to Facebook provides insights about what apps are trending and which app features are welcomed by users. Therefore, this implies that the new VPN is some sort of spyware just like it clearly spells out in its description that all data will be shared with Facebook. Nevertheless, Facebook has reportedly promoted Onavo VPN under its navigation menu labeled as Protect on its main app currently evident on IOS.