Facebook sharing data with Chinese firms

WASHINGTON: Facebook Inc said yesterday it had data sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese companies, including Huawei, the world’s thirdlargest smartphone maker, which has come under scrutiny from US intelligence agencies over security concerns.

The social media company said Huawei, computer maker Lenovo Group and smartphone makers OPPO and TCL Corp were among about 60 companies worldwide that received access to some user data after they signed contracts to recreate Facebooklike experiences for their users.

Members of Congress raised concerns after The New York

Times reported on the practice on Monday, saying data of users’ friends could have been accessed without their explicit consent. Facebook denied that and said the data access was to allow its users to access account features on mobile devices.

More than half the partnerships had already been wound down, Facebook said. It said yesterday it would end the Huawei agreement later this week, and was ending the other three partnerships with Chinese firms as well.

Chinese telecommunications companies have come under scrutiny from US intelligence officials, who argue they provide an opportunity for foreign espionage and threaten critical US infrastructure, something the Chinese have consistently denied.

A Facebook executive said that the company had carefully managed the access it gave to the Chinese companies.

‘‘Facebook, along with many other US tech companies, have worked with them and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services on to these phones,’’ Francisco Varela, vicepresident of mobile partnerships for Facebook, said in a statement.

He said ‘‘given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei’s servers’’.