Facebook Shared Data With Chinese Companies Amid Intel. Community Security Concerns

Facebook admitted on Tuesday it did have data sharing partnerships with four Chinese companies, including the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, Huawei, even though the company was under intense scrutiny from the United States intelligence agencies for security concerns, according to Reuters.

The company said Huawei, computer company Lenovo Group, and other smartphone makers OPPO and TCL Corp were among the nearly 60 companies which received access to some user data after signing contracts with Facebook.


The New York Times first reported on the practice over the weekend, prompting several members of Congress to raise concerns about the scheme since the data of users' friends could have been accessed without their full, explicit consent.


Facebook dismissed those concerns and said the data access was only to allow its users to access specific account features when using mobile devices.


The social media giant said more than half the partnerships with corporations have already ended and it would terminate the Huawei agreement and three more with Chinese firms later this week.


U.S. intelligence officials have warned that Chinese telecommunications companies could give ample opportunity for potential foreign espionage and even poseed a threat to critical infrastructure in the U.S.


Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Intelligence Community, released a statement describing how the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee discussed concerns about the smartphone maker back in 2012.

“The news that Facebook provided privileged access to Facebook’s API to Chinese device makers like Huawei and TCL raises legitimate concerns, and I look forward to learning more about how Facebook ensured that information about their users was not sent to Chinese servers,” Warner said.
Facebook said it carefully managed the access offered to the Chinese companies as part of their agreements.


“Facebook along with many other U.S. tech companies have worked with them and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones,” Francisco Varela, vice president of mobile partnerships for Facebook, said in a statement.


“Facebook’s integrations with Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO and TCL were controlled from the get-go — and we approved the Facebook experiences these companies built.”


Varela also emphasized since Congress was already discussing the issue, "we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei’s servers.”


The Senate Commerce Committee called on Facebook's chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg to respond to the report which said the Silicon Valley company shared user data with more than 60 device manufacturers, even though the company said it would change its data practices after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.




Republican chairman Sen. John Thune and ranking Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson both wrote to Zuckerberg about the NYT report claimed the manufacturers were able to access user data for friends even if they denied permission to share the same information with third parties.


They also asked if Facebook audited partnerships with the dozens of device manufacturers under a 2011 consent order with the Federal Trade Commission and if Zuckerberg needed to revise his testimony given before the Senate in April.


Facebook responded to say it would address any questions the Commerce Committee has, even though the company still has not answered hundreds of questions submitted by Congress after Zuckerberg's April testimony.


The FTC said in March it was investigating Facebook's privacy practices after it was revealed that the company allowed Apple and other device makers "deep" access to users' personal data without their consent.