Facebook it has the largest social network on the planet, but it didn't get to this point without looking extremely carefully at what people do and want. Over time, Facebook bought many companies that helped it do this, and among them is one called Onavo, which offers free the possibility to surf the Internet through a VPN-type network, secure, at least theoretically.
Facebook bought Onavo almost 4 years ago, and since then it started to look very carefully at what users of the service do when browsing the Internet. Thanks to the data taken from there, those from Facebook knew how to make their online services better, but they also found out secrets regarding the usage rate of some competing services, including that of the Snapchat company.
Facebook knew how many people still use Snapchat and which of the functions offered by the applications are still popular, while only this company knew this. Thanks to the data, Facebook managed to implement functions in its applications that would attract new users from Snapchat, and the strategy proved to be a successful one, because Snapchat is in a pretty bad situation.
How Facebook secretly spies on you on the Internet
Facebook used the same Onavo application before buying WhatsApp to see how widely used the messaging platform is. Moreover, Facebook used data from Onavo to launch the Facebook Live platform after seeing how many people were using the live video services of Meerkat and Periscope, so now we know how it knew all along what new popular features to launch.
Facebook modified the terms and conditions of use of the Onavo platform to include specifications to mention the fact that all data there can be analyzed by it. This change was made a few years ago, so Facebook has had access to all this data for a very long time, and that's how it spies not only on its users, but also on its competitors who have the services used through Onavo.
"Months before social media company Snap Inc. publicly disclosed slowing user growth, rival Facebook Inc. already knew. Late last year, Facebook employees used an internal database of a sampling of mobile users' activity to observe that usage of Snap's flagship app, Snapchat, wasn't growing as quickly as before, people familiar with the matter said. They saw that the shift occurred after Facebook's Instagram app launched Stories…”
Facebook does not reveal the number of people who use Onavo globally, but since the data there is so relevant, it is clear that we are talking about hundreds of millions of people. Basically, Facebook has a platform that allows it to "see" how popular competing services are and which functions are the most used, all without any company being able to stop this in any way.
