Tech Brief: Facebook Pulls Onavo VPN App From Apple App Store

Facebook is finally pulling the plug on Onavo Protect VPN (paywall) on iOS, after Apple declared the app to be in violation of its data collection policies. (The Android app is still available.) Onavo, the Israeli mobile-analytics startup that was acquired by Facebook in 2013, came under scrutiny earlier this year after The Wall Street Journal reported how "data from Onavo's app has been crucial to helping Facebook track rivals and scope out new product categories." And this is exactly what Apple has found fault with, especially following the new App Store guidelines that it rolled out back in June that explicitly prohibits developers from creating databases out of user information and sell it to third parties.