big tech

Onavo: How Meta Used a "Free VPN" to Spy on Competitors and Users Alike

Meta's Onavo Protect app routed all user traffic through its servers, providing competitive intelligence that informed billion-dollar acquisitions

RNT Editorial··7 min read
Onavo: How Meta Used a "Free VPN" to Spy on Competitors and Users Alike

In 2013, Facebook quietly acquired Onavo, an Israeli analytics company that operated a free VPN app called Onavo Protect. Marketed as a tool to help users monitor data usage and protect their privacy, the app actually served a very different purpose: it routed all of a user's mobile internet traffic through Facebook's servers, giving the company unprecedented visibility into which apps people were using, how often, and for how long. This data became a powerful competitive intelligence tool that informed some of Facebook's most consequential business decisions.

The intelligence gathered through Onavo was remarkably detailed. Because the VPN intercepted all mobile traffic, Facebook could see not just which apps users opened but how they interacted with those apps — what features they used, how much time they spent, and how usage patterns changed over time.

Key Takeaways

  • Onavo routed all user mobile traffic through Facebook servers providing real-time competitive intelligence on the entire app ecosystem
  • Onavo data directly informed the $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition and the development of Instagram Stories to counter Snapchat
  • Apple removed Onavo from the App Store for violating data collection guidelines and Facebook also paid teens to install a separate surveillance app
#meta#onavo#vpn#competitive-intelligence#surveillance#apple

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