FUROR OVER INFO-MANIACS
F’book on defensive over user-data deals
Sure, Facebook has let scores of companies have your personal data — but not to worry, it’s perfectly safe, the social-media giant insisted Monday.
Facebook, still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, responded the day after it was revealed that it has struck deals over the past decade with at least 60 smartphone and tablet makers — including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung — that granted them “deep” access to personal data.
Facebook launched software 10 years ago that gave the companies access even to the data of users’ friends without their consent — and let the arrangements continue after declaring it would no longer share such material with outsiders, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The deals granted the companies access to a user’s relationship status, political leaning, education history, religion and upcoming events, according to the report.
Some device makers were able to retrieve personal information from users’ friends who believed they had barred any such sharing, the Times reported.
The newspaper said the unfettered access continued even after Facebook agreed with the Federal Trade Commission in 2011 to better protect data and only share it after getting users’ express consent. Facebook pushed back Monday. Ime Archibong, vice president of product partnerships, said in a blog post that Facebook has maintained tight control over the technology, known as application programming interfaces, or APIs, and that it is unaware of any abuse by the companies with which it teamed.
“These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences,” he said. “Contrary to claims by The New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends.”
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement Monday that “the news that Facebook struck ‘data-sharing’ partnerships with other corporations is yet another reminder of the many questions that remain unanswered.
“Consumers have the right to know how their personal information is being used; and the companies . . . have a critical responsibility to protect it,” she added.
Lawmakers also slammed Facebook, saying it misled them about how it collects and shares data.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (DConn.) said Facebook “has failed to come clean with the American people about the extent, the scope and the scale, of data sharing.”
The social network has already failed to protect the data of about 87 million users that was shared with political data firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress to answer questions about user data the company provided to third parties.