On Tuesday, 5th June 2018, Facebook declared that it has included at least four Chinese electronics companies in its data-sharing partnership. Even the companies that has a close relationship with China’s government.
Huawei, a telecommunications equipment company that has been flagged by American intelligence officials as a national security threat is also on board. Others like Lenovo, Oppo and TCL have been also given private access to the user data.
By the end of the week, Facebook officials said that they will turn off the deal with Huawei though the four partnerships remain in effect. On Sunday, 3rd June 2018, The Newyork Times diclosed in reports that Facebook gave access to the Chinese device makers along with other manufacturers including Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung.
In 2007 the deals were part of an effort to push more mobile users onto the social network.The agreements allowed device makers to offer some Facebook features, such as address books, “like” buttons and status updates.
Facebook officials said the agreements with the Chinese companies allowed them access similar to what was offered to BlackBerry, which could retrieve detailed information on both device users and all of their friends including religious and political leanings, work and education history and relationship status.
Huawei used its private access to feed a “social phone” app that let users view messages and social media accounts in one place, according to the officials. Facebook representatives said the data shared with Huawei stayed on its phones, not the company’s servers.
According to TOI report, The South Dakota Republican,Senator John Thune who leads the Commerce Committee, has demanded that Facebook provide Congress with details about its data partnerships.“Facebook is learning hard lessons that meaningful transparency is a high standard to meet,” Thune said. His committee also oversees the Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating Facebook to determine whether the company’s data policies violate a 2011 consent decree with the commission.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia pointed out that concerns about Huawei were not new, citing a 2012 congressional report on the “close relationships between the Chinese Communist Party and equipment makers like Huawei.” “I look forward to learning more about how Facebook ensured that information about their users was not sent to Chinese servers,” said Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.
“All Facebook’s integrations with Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL were controlled from the get-go — and Facebook approved everything that was built,” said Francisco Varela, a Facebook vice-president. “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.”
Facebook’s partnerships with device makers could ultimately spell more trouble for the tech giant at the Federal Trade Commission, a US watchdog agency that’s already investigating the company for a series of other privacy mishaps. Because Facebook has misled consumers on its data-use policies in the past and previously been punished by the FTC – the company could face sky-high fines if the agency finds it again.