Facebook has announced Viewpoints, a new app for Android and iOS that lets users get monetary rewards for participating in different kinds of user research programs, such as surveys. The platform will offer a number of programs over time, requesting to collect certain information about the user. Rewards are given out as points, and when a user gather enough points, they can be turned into money that"s sent to the user"s PayPal account.
To kick off the Viewpoints app, Facebook is launching a well-being survey, which aims to help the company create products that "limit the negative impacts of social media and enhance the benefits". This research is worth 1,000 points, which is equal to US$5.
Facebook isn"t in a particularly good position to be asking users for more data, but it tried to ease the concerns of those worried about their privacy. For each program, Viewpoints will tell the user what information will be collected and how it will be used before the user registers for it. The Viewpoints app itself will ask for the user"s name, age, gender, country of residence, and e-mail address.
Facebook says this information will be used to improve the company"s own products and that it won"t be sold to third parties. Viewpoints activity won"t be posted to Facebook without the user"s permission, and, of course, users can quit anytime.
If that"s enough to ease your fears, you can download Viewpoints for Android or iOS to start completing the first program. You can learn more about the app here.