In the early 2000s, a life-altering piece of cinema was released to the public for their viewing pleasure. According to the official IMDB page for the film, it was classified as an “American spy adventure comedy film,” but only the truest fans of the movie already knew that and simply referred to it by its original title, “Spy Kids.” The film was written, edited, directed, and produced by Robert Rodriguez, and followed the lives of Juni and Carmen Cortez who, prior to the events of the film, thought their parents to be completely ordinary, but in fact, they were international super spies. Ultimately, the two kids must learn to be spies to rescue their parents from danger, thus creating a new division of secret agents called, you guessed it, spy kids.
Aside from the script being arguably pretty terrible, the movie showed kids that they could be anything they wanted to be, and this concept, no matter how it’s portrayed, is important for a child’s cognitive development.
What many people don’t know about the movie, “Spy Kids,” is that it became Mark Zuckerberg’s, chief executive officer and co-founder of Facebook (FB), favorite film when it was released. Zuck was entranced by the plot, mystified by the gadgetry and tech at the disposal of such young minds, and swore that someday when he had his own company, he’d give the youth of our generation a shot at proving their worth.
Like any entrepreneur worth his/her weight in bitcoin, Zuckerberg kept his promise from way back when and decided that it was high-time to employ the help of some youths in his latest endeavor, although one could argue his mission was less than valiant.
According to a TechCrunch report released this week, Facebook (FB) has been paying users ages 13 to 35 up to $20 per month plus referral fees in exchange for installing the iOS or Android “Facebook Research” app. While this may seem like a great way for a pretty wide age demographic to make some extra cheddar, “Facebook Research” is a VPN that the social media giant uses to siphon and analyze user phone activity to gather data on usage habits. Facebook (FB) admitted to TechCrunch that they’ve been paying “spy teens” since 2016 for their data activity, including going so far as to ask users to “screenshot their Amazon order history page.”
Immediately following the release of the TechCrunch report, Facebook (FB) informed several media sources that it would shut down its iOS version of its Research app, but Apple (AAPL) made sure to get in a few words before Facebook (FB) covered their tracks.
“We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in his case to protect our users and their data.”
–Apple spokesperson regarding Facebook Research app
Though Apple’s (AAPL) “mama-bear” statement should indicate to Facebook (FB) that their data-gathering business, which, mind you, pays money to thirteen-year-olds, is controversial and dangerous to the security of user privacy, TechCrunch reported that the Company will continue to run its app on Android. According to data security expert Will Strafach, if Facebook (FB) continues to make full use of the current access they possess to user data, “they will have the ability to continuously collect private messages in social media apps, chats from instant messaging apps — including photos/videos sent to others, as well as emails, and web searches.
It would seem that Mark Zuckerberg missed a crucial plot point from his countless viewings of “Spy Kids.” Juni and Carmen Cortez were tasked with rising to the challenge of becoming spies to save their parents, not to gather data for a corporation and help them spy on other companies. I only saw the film once, and even I picked up on that.
