Google and Facebook had faced criticism from privacy experts for distributing their research apps through a program iPhone maker Apple Inc had created for companies to distribute apps to employees.

"The Screenwise Meter iOS app should not have operated under Apple’s developer enterprise program — this was a mistake, and we apologise," Google said in a statement.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Bill Rigby)

Stocks treated in this article : Apple, Facebook, Alphabet