Apple Takes Away Key License From Facebook After Massive Policy Violation

Facebook and privacy. It's a topic that is constantly in circulation in the news and now the popular social media site is back in the spotlight following a recent report that compromised the policies of Apple. Now, the mega tech company is going after the social media giant and revoking a key license in the process.

Earlier this week, TechCruch reported that Facebook was allegedly paying users -- including teenagers -- to download a specific app on their mobile devices that allowed the company "deep" access into that user's history and activity records. Now, Apple is hitting back at the company for abusing their policies and making sure their stance on the discovery is known.

Following a revocation of "enterprise certificates," a spokesperson for Apple told the site:

"We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization," the spokesperson mentioned in their statement. "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 this case to protect our users and their data."

For Apple users concerned with what this could mean for their use of the app, the site will still be available the App store and Facebook will still be able to publish various apps as well. What the revocation targets is their ability to distribute apps that offers an internal testing period with developers before the program itself goes live to the public.

According to the initial report, Facebook targeted people ages 13-35 and paid them up to 20 bucks a month in addition to referral fees for participating in this program that offered all-access to the user's files. Private messages, photos, videos, search history -- all laid bare to Facebook to use as they saw fit.

Facebook has responded to the recent reports, telling CNBC "Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing 'secret' about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App. It wasn't 'spying' as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate. Finally, less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms."