The social-media giant has been secretly paying teenagers and adults to install a “Facebook Research” VPN—allowing the company to collect and analyze all of a user’s phone and web activity—in exchange for US$20 per month. Hours after TechCrunch published a story revealing the practice, Apple blocked Facebook’s app and revoked its Enterprise Certificate. (TechCrunch)

Talking point: The certificate allowed Facebook to distribute its Research app to paid external users without going through the App Store. This violated Apple’s policy, as the Enterprise system is meant for distributing internal corporate apps to employees only. As a result of the ban, Facebook’s legitimate internal iOS apps are no longer working for its employees; the company is now trying to resolve the issue with Apple. Facebook isn’t the only offender: reported Wednesday afternoon, Google has been running a data-collecting app called Screenwise Meter. Though Google’s app is more upfront about what data it is collecting and why, it also has external testers use the API meant for internal corporate use, potentially violating Apple’s terms.