Facebook data deals criticized
Firm disputes a report on how it shares info with device makers.
Facebook Inc. is disputing a New York Times report about how it shares data with device makers including Apple, Amazon and Samsung. The companies are privy to Facebook users’ information but it’s nothing like the access that led to the Cambridge Analytica controversy, Facebook said.
But U.S. lawmakers were skeptical and demanded more accountability for Facebook’s privacy lapses.
“Sure looks like [Facebook Chief Executive Mark] Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook,” Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on a House subcommittee overseeing antitrust issues, wrote on Twitter.
The New York Times reported that Facebook had struck deals with device manufacturers that allowed them full access to information about users and their friends. But Facebook contends those pacts were intended to help device makers create their own versions of Facebook apps, and the data mostly remained on phones that accessed it. That kind of arrangement was necessary before phone operating systems relied on app stores, it said.
Facebook and other internet companies are grappling with a global backlash over the extent to which they slurp up and handle user data. The New York Times said the vast amounts of information shared with Apple Inc. and other phone makers included data on users’ friends who believed they had barred access.
The report raised questions about whether Zuckerberg misled Congress in testimony this year, and whether the company was in violation of its decree with the Federal Trade Commission requiring it to obtain consent from users about how their information is shared.
The revelations are “a troubling reminder that the expectations tech companies set for consumer protection sometimes differ from what is actually delivered,” said a spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees several tech issues and questioned Zuckerberg in April.
Facebook said it had begun dismantling pacts with device makers dating back as much as a decade — when the social network rarely was directly installed on phones. Hardware manufacturers used Facebook’s software tools to enable their own users to access contacts or post photos to their profiles, among other things, the company said in a blog post.
“There were no app stores at the time and this was the only way to make our product work on their devices,” Ime Archibong, Facebook’s vice president of product partnerships, said in an interview.
European lawmakers also voiced concern. Andrea Jelinek, who is in charge of policing the European Union’s data privacy law, said regulators there intend to examine the reports.
Facebook’s stock price plunged 10% in March amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Since then, it has more than recovered: On Friday, the shares closed at a record $193.99. They slipped 0.4% to $193.28 on Monday.
Facebook said lax policies around sharing of data with third parties led to the leak of information to consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which worked on successful Republican campaigns, including that of President Trump.
An app developer gave information on as many as 87 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, mostly without their permission, setting off a scandal over data privacy when it was reported this year. That developer was able to make the deal with the firm because the data were stored on his servers. Facebook said that in the device partnerships described by the New York Times, personal data were mostly processed on users’ phones.
Facebook, however, doesn’t view device makers as outsiders — allowing them deeper access, the New York Times reported. It said it discovered some device partners could retrieve users’ relationship status, religion, political leanings and upcoming events, among other things.
“We’re not aware of any people’s information being misused by these companies,” Archibong said.
Roger McNamee, a Facebook investor who is also one of the company’s top critics, said that although the program may have restricted device makers’ access to Facebook users’ data, Facebook may not be fully aware of what was done with the data and some people may still have misused it.
“We have to allow for the possibility that abuse has occurred,” he said.