Report: Facebook shared user data with flagged Chinese firm
MENLO PARK, Calif. — The New York Times says Facebook has acknowledged it shared user data with several Chinese handset manufacturers, including Huawei, a company flagged by U. S. intelligence officials as a national security threat.
The report says Facebook said Tuesday the handset makers — Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL — were among 60 it had shared data with as early as 2007. Facebook told the newspaper it planned to wind down the Huawei deal this week.
The data included work history, relationship status and likes on device users and their friends.
The report didn’t say the data was misused. Facebook did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, says he wants to know howFacebook ensured that datawas not transferred to Chinese servers.
The Times report comes a day after the newspaper reported on its sharing of user data with device makers such as Apple, Amazon, Samsung and others over the past decade.
The social network acknowledges the data sharing deals, which it said it has struck with at least 60 device makers since 2007. But it said there’s nothing scandalous about them.
The arrangements raise a number of questions, among them whether Facebook failed to get the explicit consent of users before sharing their data. If so, that could place it in violation of a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook denies it shared user data without consent.
The device- maker deals could raise concerns similar to those in Facebook’s recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, which led to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying to Congress. That’s where a Trumpconnected political consulting firm used data derived from as many as 87 million Facebook profiles in order to sway election results.
However, it’s not clear how the device makers could have abused Facebook even if they wanted to. So far there’s no evidence that phone and tablet makers used Facebook data improperly, in sharp contrast to Cambridge Analytica consultants. Apple, for instance, said it has worked with Facebook for years to let its users share things on Facebook through iPhone and Mac apps.
But the report tapped into continuing anxiety about the information users give up — and to whom — when they use Facebook. The Times report said device makers received users’ own information, such as email addresses, phone numbers and relationship statuses, as well as data from their friends, sometimes without their explicit consent.
“Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘ complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook,” Rep. David Cicillene, a Rhode Island Democrat, wrote on Twitter . “This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable.”