Facebook to pay you for participating in market research

Facebook has launched an app that will pay people for participating in its surveys, tasks and research aimed at gathering insights from users to improve its apps and others products.

"We'll use these insights to improve products like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Portal and Oculus, and to benefit the broader community," Facebook's Product Manager Erez Naveh said in a statement on Monday.

Called Facebook Viewpoints, the app is currently available to people in the US who have Facebook accounts.

The social networking giant said it was looking forward to providing additional ways for people to register and expanding to more countries next year.

Here's how the app works.

Once you set up a Facebook Viewpoints account, you will be invited to join programmes. Before each programme, Facebook will explain what information will be collected, how it will be used and how many points you will receive for completing the programme.

Facebook will let you know how many points you need in order to receive a payment, and every time you reach that amount of points, you will receive a payment sent directly to your PayPal account.

"When you join Facebook Viewpoints, we'll ask for information like your name, email address, country of residence, date of birth and gender. We may ask you to share additional information, like your location, to qualify you for individual programmes," Naveh said.

"Before you begin any programme, we'll let you know how the information you provide through that programme will be used," Naveh added.

Facebook said it would not sell your information from this app to third parties.

"We also won't publicly share your Facebook Viewpoints activity on Facebook or on other accounts you've linked without your permission. And you can end your participation at any time," Naveh said.

The first programme that Facebook Viewpoints users will be able to participate in is a well-being survey.

"We want to better understand how the use of social media like Facebook can impact people's well-being, so we're launching the Well-Being Survey," Naveh said.

"Information from this survey will help us build better products that aim to limit the negative impacts of social media and enhance the benefits," he added.IANS